This people’s doctor in Yellandu charges just Rs 1 to treat patients

Praja Vaidyashala in Yellandu is run by an Orthopaedic surgeon Dr. G Harshavardhan.

Kothagudem: At a time when availing health services has become a costly affair, especially for the poor, a young doctor here is offering medical treatment for just Rs 1.

In Aam Bazar of Yellandu coal town a signage above the entrance of an orthopaedic clinic, Praja Vaidyashala attracts everyone. It reads ‘Corporate medical treatment to the common man is possible with a rupee; the doctor’s fee is Rs 1’. It is run by an orthopaedic surgeon Dr. G Harshavardhan.

It is inspired by a freedom fighter and Leftist leader Puchalapalli Sundaraiah’s brother, Dr. Puchalapalli Ramachandra Reddy, who ran a People’s Polyclinic in Nellore of Andhra Pradesh from 1970 to 90’s and charged only Rs 1 to treat the patients.

Dr. Harshavardhan, the superintendent of Community Health Centre (CHC) at Yellandu, treats the patients at his clinic from 2 pm onwards, after his duty hours at the CHC. He started this one and half years ago, the response is as good as it gets.

Explaining why he started the clinic and collecting just one rupee as consultation fee, Dr. Harshavardhan, who hails from Nellore, told Telangana Today that in his school days he grew up watching Dr. Ramachandra Reddy treating patients at his People’s Polyclinic.

He noted he wanted to become a doctor drawing inspiration from Dr. Ramachandra Reddy and pursued MBBS, later MS (Ortho). Praja Vaidyashala is meant to serve tribals who live in Yellandu and surrounding areas in large numbers and are forced to visit Kothagudem, Khammam or Hyderabad, to get advanced orthopaedic treatment.

Beginning with a handful of patients, the doctors now treat around 40 to 50 patients daily. Orthopaedic ailments or fractures which do not need any tests or surgery and could be set right with a PoP bandage and medicines are treated at the clinic.

If anyone is in need of surgery that patient would be taken to Khammam, where surgery would be performed free of cost under Arogyasri scheme. It is being planned to establish an advanced 50-bedded orthopaedic hospital on Arogyasri basis at the old bus stand area in Yellandu in the next couple of months so that the patients need not go anywhere for treatment.

“I have a government job and my wife is also an ENT specialist in the local government hospital, our jobs are enough to sustain our life. Serving the tribals and the poor gives me happiness and they accept me well”, Dr. Harshavardhan stated. Patients from interior places like Gundala, besides towns like Kothagudem, Mahabubabad also visit his clinic.