In an attempt to provide affordable medical care to the economically backward class, Dr Victor Emmanuel from Hyderabad has been treating people for just Rs 10 since 2018.
Amid the COVID spike in the country, during which many hospitals have been charging sky-high rates and healthcare has become even more inaccessible, Dr Emmanuel has been treating COVID patients for Rs 10, providing them with the required medications and helping them with home isolation.
He said that the clinic had treated over 20,000 to 25,000 COVID patients over the last year.
“We are now treating over 100 patients a day. But initially when the cases were surging, the clinic had a footfall of over 140 patients in a day.”Dr Victor Emmanuel
Dr Emmanuel has also been treating soldiers for free since the inception of the clinic.
"I started this clinic with the sole purpose of serving the needy and offering them affordable treatment. Under this, we have identified a few sections of the society that are economically deprived and hold food security cards or white ration cards. Apart from such people, we provide the same service to farmers, acid attack survivors, orphans, specially-abled people and jawans and their families,” he said.
‘For the Patients, By the Patients’
He told ANI that initially, the clinic was hesitant to operate while charging the patients only Rs 10. But soon, people started identifying the clinic with the cause ‘for the patient, by the patient’.
“I charge people Rs 10 instead of just treating them for free because I do not want the patients to think that I am treating them out of mercy. They walk into the clinic, pay Rs 10, get themselves checked and walk out happily without feeling that someone showed mercy to them and their financial status.”Dr Victor Emmanuel
“Once I saw a woman begging on the roads in front of a hospital so that she could buy medicines for her husband who was being treated at the medical facility’s ICU. This incident changed my life. That was when I decided to serve the poor. Throughout my journey, my friends and family, including my wife who, too, is a doctor, have been very supportive,” he told ANI.
(With inputs from ANI)
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