No fees for poor, teachers, freedom fighters... poets!
If you visit Dr Ganapati Aditya’s chamber in Mymensingh, you will see a notice hanging outside that says he will provide free treatment to his teachers, freedom fighters and their family members, impoverished people, and poets.
Although unusual, locals consider this a generous gesture from the doctor, who is an associate professor of cardiology at Mymensingh Medical College Hospital. The 55-year-old physician has been rendering treatment from his chamber in his home, “Suniti House”, in the district’s Phulpur town since 1989. He completed his MBBS from Rangpur Medical College in 1987.
“I am proud to be a doctor as I have the opportunity to help people with free treatment,” a smiling Dr Aditya told this correspondent recently.
On providing free treatment to freedom fighters and their family members, the doctor said, “They are the valiant sons of the soil who fought bravely to liberate our country.”
“Literary activists are involved with creative work, and poetry is an ancient form of literature to which I have great devotion since boyhood. I only demand a volume of their work, but it is not mandatory for free treatment,” said Aditya, a Tagore enthusiast.
Beggars and poor people are also given free treatment, said Aditya, adding, “I see around 40 patients daily and provide free treatment to fifty percent of visitors in a day.”
“I always tell my patients that prevention is better than cure when it comes to heart diseases,” the doctor said.
Md Azizul Islam, headmaster of a local primary school, said, “Dr Aditya has been doing extraordinary work for this locality. He also distributes medicine samples given by different pharmaceutical companies among poor patients.”
An 80-year-old widow, Subhashini Saha, from Phulpur’s Sahapara said she has been taking free treatment from Dr Aditya for long.
Abdul Hakim Sarker, ex-commander of Muktijoddha Sangsad’s Phulpur upazila unit, said, “There are 80 freedom fighters in Phulpur, and it would be great if more doctors follow the example of Dr Aditya.”
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