Westbank Hospital, also known as `The Doctors' Hospital,' is the only project of its kind in the state, owned and run by the doctors themselves. Located across the river Hooghly and accessible within half-an-hour from the central business district of Calcutta, it is owned by a holding company, Meridian Medical Research & Hospital Ltd.

All the doctors were trained abroad after completing their basic medical degree from colleges in Calcutta. Now they have returned to the city to set up this hospital, by contributing towards the equity of the holding company from their own savings.

Based on a survey undertaken by consultants Lovelock & Lewes, the present site at Howrah was selected. The survey had found that there were no proper medical facilities in the industrialbelt of Howrah district. According to statistics available with the hospital authorities, 70 per cent of its patients are from the Howrah district, while 15 per cent are from adjoining districts of Midnapore and Hooghly while the rest are from Calcutta.

Not only did the founders of the Westbank Hospital have a common vision, it is for the common man-the middle-class in the state. In its brochure, it notes that, it is a different kind of hospital with a different set of values where it has full-time consultants, spirit is not eclipsed by commerce and, above all, it assures quality at a rational cost. In its bid to have full-time consultants, the doctors have formed a co-operative and bought a plot of land around two km from the hospital for setting up a colony. The equity capital of the holding company, Meridian Research, is Rs 2.25 crore, out of which Rs 1.15 crore was contributed by the promoter-doctors. A term loan of Rs 3.25 crore was advanced by its two bankers -- Syndicate Bank and Bank ofMaharashtra.

The hospital was started on August 3 last year, and is likely to have its emergency department fully functional by mid-August 1999.

According to Satadal Saha of General Surgery and one of the chief architects, the project will be a deviation from the medical system prevalent in the state, where the conditions of the hospitals are deplorable. Working on a strict financial discipline, the 45-odd NRI doctors have incorporated issues like clinical audit and total computerised set-up, hitherto unknown to hospitals and most of the premier nursing homes in this part of country.

Saha feels that system of mandatory clinical audit will help junior as well as the senior doctors in upgrading their skills and in keeping up with the new vistas of development in the field of medicare.The charges at Westbank is a shade above the government-run hospitals and far below that of a privately-run nursing homes. For example, a patient visiting the outdoor has to pay only Rs 25 as registration fee.

Westbank is a200-bed hospital but as of now facilities for 57 beds only have been completed. There are four categories of charges for beds, starting from Rs 200 to Rs 800 per day.

During subsequent visits, the patient has to always refer to the registration number and the hospitals' computer database keeps a complete record of the patient's medical history, medicines prescribed and pathological tests recommended. After this, the patient does not need to carry his medical record file always, he/she has has to merely refer to the registration number.

The software for patients admitted in the hospital is being developed and is expected to be operational very shortly.

As additional back-up, each and every doctor keeps in touch with the doctor he/she trained under while pursuing advanced medical training abroad. This is apart from the on-line help a doctor is able to get over the interactive internet sessions and the on-line databases available to doctors worldwide, but seldom used by the medical practitioners in thispart of the country.

In fact, due to these on-line and internet facilities, the hospital was able to diagnose a critical case of Portal Colopathy, which is a form of vascular malformation. This is a very rare case, where the patient has constantly bleeding anus. According to gastroenterologist Dilip Todi of Westbank, this is rare case, with an occurrence level of one in every 10,000 cases of portal hypertension.

Unlike other hospitals, Westbank is planning a component banking unit for the bloodbank being set up in arrangement with Bhoruka Bloodbank. For critical pathological tests, the hospital has an arrangement with Eko X-ray.

The hospital has entered into performance-based contracts with agencies for handling its laundry, kitchen and security services. In addition to this, the hospital management committee has hired agencies for handling the job of its support staff like wardboys. According to Saha, this will help in by-passing the labour-related problems, common to hospitals in the east.

In a bidto encourage a common outlook and sense of purpose, all employed at the hospital starting from doctors right down to the support staff, are to have their meals in the common dining hall. Little wonder, the monthly revenues has already increased to around Rs 15 lakh in May from a mere Rs 34,000 in August last year without substantial addition in the number of beds. Finance director Utpal Chakraborty feels that, at this rate, it will take another six-months to break-even. In fact, the six-member hospital committee believes that the present conditions merely reinforces the fact that the proposed medical college, initially being planned by the doctors might come up well before the scheduled date.

Saha sums up the efforts and the common objective of the founding fathers of Westbank in a one-liner: "We are humans and we are trying our level best, only time will tell."