140-year-old British built hospital in Karnataka gets ready to treat COVID patients again with RSS' help

Mumbai, May 13: Volunteers from the RSS and BJP took it up as a challenge to clean the hospital that has not been touched for 20 long years. Known as the Bharat Gold Mines Limited Hospital or BGML Hospital, it was lying defunct for 20 long years. Established in 1880 by Dr TJ O’Donnell and his brother JD O’Donnell, it has 800 beds and was the largest hospital in Asia in the early 20th century.

 

 

With Covid-19 cases increasing in Karnataka's Kolar district, MP S Muniswamy decided to make use of this hospital as a Covid Care Centre since it would take a long time to set up a new facility. "After discussions with the Sangh Parivar and other organisations, we decided to set up a 200+ bed Covid Care Centre. Some 250 volunteers from the BJP and RSS worked hard to get this ready. Now the cots and electricity work is done and the hospital should be up and running in 2-3 days' time", he said to one of the news channels.

 

 

The MP wrote to Union Minister of Coal and Mines Pralhad Joshi to permit the district administration to make use of this massive hospital as a Covid Care Centre. Authorities said that the BGML hospital has many firsts, such as the first in Asia to get electricity and also an X-ray unit when the mines were functional for over 120 years. So far, the RSS sewa workers have removed more than 400 tractor loads of garbage. Praveen S, RSS Karyakarta in KGF, who is overseeing the work, said that their biggest challenge was to clean the hospital.

 

 

 

Praveen says, "Day 1 when I entered this hospital, you could see bats flying around. There were 2-3 inches of mud everywhere inside the hospital. It was full of cobwebs. Many people were sceptical about whether we could do this work. But, the volunteers from RSS, BJP, VHP, Seva Bharati, Jana Jagaran Samiti together decided they could do this. We started this work on April 27 and by May 7, the entire cleaning of this five acre campus was completed." Work is now underway to get the facility functional as a hospital once all the required infrastructure has been put in place. It has been decided to convert four rooms into ICU facilities. Now, electrification, plumbing and other work is underway in full swing. They have also decided to make use of the 140 year old iron cots.

 

 

 

"It is almost 140 years old and weighs more than 100 kg. You require at least 3-4 people to lift this. The forgings are all old techniques and these can be used for another century or more," Praveen said referring to the strength of the iron cots further adding that the local citizens now want the central government, which controls this facility, to convert it into a major government hospital on par with Victoria hospital in Bengaluru.

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