Photograph shows first year students’ retreat
As we approach Christmas and the New Year it is always good to look back over the past year to thank God for the progress He has enabled and to share the news with our supporters.
This year we have welcomed three new Trustees to the Council of Friends of Ludhiana. These are Arun Thomas, Mike Hoskin and Shubhro Mullick. These three are alumni of CMC and CDC [Arun is a dental alumnus]. We look forward to their future contribution to Friends of Ludhiana and it is clear that they provide a balance for the ageing members who have been on the Council for many years!
Arun Thomas was instrumental in launching a bid for a Cone Beam CT scanner for the Dental Hospital in Ludhiana which Friends of Ludhiana also supported. The scanner was inaugurated in August and, in the first two months of its operation, well over 300 scans had been performed. Abi Thomas [the principal of the Dental College] comments that this has greatly improved the service for patients and has also earned a revenue of about £5,000. We are grateful to Arun for his enthusiasm and his ability to involve several other alumni in this project.
Apart from the money given by Friends of Ludhiana towards the CBCT project, we have also been able to continue to support the Good Samaritan Fund which assists poor in-patients with the costs of their admission and treatment in the Hospital.
Another very pleasing project being undertaken at CMC is the Wellcome Trust UK Leap Save project for which CMC has been awarded a substantial grant by the Wellcome Trust. The project entails testing and validating new, innovative and cost-effective technology in laparoscopic surgery and post operative care. CMC Ludhiana has been identified as the Indian centre for this project. The teams involved are not just surgeons but anaesthetists and especially surgical nurses, who are now leading in different parts of the project.
The involvement of CMC in the Wellcome Trust project owes much to the enthusiasm of Dhruv Ghosh. He has also developed a research network for surgical nurses which is truly international. This network is led by CMC with the collaboration of the University of Edinburgh and has spread across Africa and South America in addition to Asia.
Dhruv has started a training course in qualitative research in surgery at CMC which is being led by non-surgeons. In addition, CMC is also looking to start courses in data science, data management and health economics in collaboration with a management school in India.
Under the direction of Prof Jeyaraj Pandian, CMC continues to be an international centre of renown for the management of stroke. Recently, the Department of Neurology was recognised as the Collaborating Centre of Excellence for Biomedical Research by the Indian Council of Medical Research (ICMR)
So there has been much for which we thank God as we look back. One problem remains at CMC which is the low bed occupancy in the hospital which, in turn, has an adverse effect on income. Please continue to pray about that.
I am grateful to the other Trustees for their continued support and they join me in wishing you all a Happy Christmas and Blessed New Year.
Dr Keith R Hine
Addendum
After I had written the above, we were saddened and shocked to hear that Peter Clark [our Treasurer] had died on 4 December 2023. His passing will leave a huge gap in the administration of Friends of Ludhiana. We find comfort in the surety that Peter is with the Lord he served and worshipped but our thoughts and prayers go to his wife [Anne], children and grandchildren that they may find strength and comfort at this sad time.
One reply on “Chairman’s Christmas Letter 2023”
So pleased to hear of advances being made by CMC in many areas and particularly that it is appreciated that nurses can be more involved in the general running of the hospital. Would be great to hear in the not too distant future of Nurse-led clinics etc