Amrita Kripa Hospital
Amritakripa
Charitable Hospital
Kalpetta
The Amrita Kripa Charitable Hospital in Kalpetta (AKCHK) is one of five satellite charitable hospitals run by the Amrita Institute of Medical Sciences (AIMS), a 1,300-bed state-of-the-art tertiary care hospital in Kochi, Kerala, founded by Amma (Sri Mata Amritanandamayi Devi).
Amma’s deep concern for some of the poorest people in Kerala led to the inception of AKCHK in Kalpetta. The hospital serves populations that would otherwise not have easy access to quality healthcare. AKCHK is situated in the hilly Wayanad district of Northern Kerala, and it provides free medical care to the indigenous population in remote tribal hamlets and villages. There are no government medical colleges in Wayanad, and access to medical care is limited.
2018 Highlights
- 59,000 patients were given treatment through outpatient (OP) and outreach camps. Of these, 75.4% were tribal people.
- Average number of patients seen per day is 179 in the OP department
- 102 outreach camps conducted
- Rs.68 lakh (6.8 million) worth of free medicine distributed
Wayanad is home to more than half of the four lakh tribal people in Kerala. Most of the patients who visit AKCHK are from tribal communities who live in remote villages with few amenities. They usually work as farm laborers. The health indices of these tribal people are poor compared with Kerala’s overall good health indicators.
Amma teaches that everyone, whether rich or poor, can make a difference in the lives of others. No selfless gesture is insignificant. The doctors in charge of AKCHK, Dr. Sanjeev Vasudevan and his wife Dr. Ajitha, are the very embodiments of this spirit of selflessness. They were instrumental in setting up medical services in Kalpetta and in developing the hospital to its present capacity. They are not only concerned with their patients’ medical problems, but also with helping them gain better living conditions and a better quality of life.
200 patients per day of which 70% patients are from Tribal Community
Specialist Services
AKCHK provides a number of specialist services on a purely voluntary basis. The specialist services provided by volunteer doctors from Calicut and neighboring areas now include General Surgery, Dermatology, Endocrinology, ENT, Gynecology, Internal Medicine, Orthopedics, Pediatrics and Psychiatry.
Specialist services offered with support from AIMS include Dentistry and Gastroenterology.
Counseling
The tribal communities face a diverse range of problems. The inability to cope with these challenges has led to alcoholism and depression, among other mental issues. Patients can now avail themselves of the free services of psychologists and psychiatrists at AKCHK once weekly.
Effectively treating the tribal patients requires sensitivity to and knowledge of their culture and lifestyle. In addition, volunteer staff at AKCHK visit their communities every week and have thus acquired first-hand knowledge of their unique challenges.
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