About NMA

A Journey Of 25 Years

Dr. Rohit Dandawate

It was the year 1990 June 24" when Sushrut Hospital was inauguarated at Nallasopara West Twenty Five years down the lane, time has passed by very fast and now looking back brings all the memories in front of our eyes.

We were not residents of this area and were diehard "Punekar's". It was the preaching of my school Dayanaprabodhini Prashala that one should progress in his own individual capacity in an area where you are required & bloom wherever you are planted, that's the greatest contribution towards your nation. With these ideologies I left Pune and started my practice in Nallasopara. My wife Varsha joined me with utmost faith in me and my thoughts.

Nallasopara was a small town with Grampanchayat and a resident population of around 50,000 people. Around us were the lush green outfields, open spaces and a non polluted atmosphere. No Surgeon was available in the West with only Dr. Girish Hatalkar who was also a recent entrant in the East.

With a pocket full of Rs. 5000/- we embarked on a journey to start our hospital in this remote area. No local banks were ready to give us loans and the experiences with them were repugnant. Saraswat Bank helped us in doing the financial jugglery and bringing up the hospital from scratch. We were lucky enough to get a steady streamline of patients from day one and as the days progressed so did the practice. Those early days we never had any entertainment around in our region. We did form a group of Badminton players where Dr. Chetan Shah, Dr. Naresh Shah, Dr. Girish Turakhiya, Dr. Rajesh Jain, Dr. Warrier, Dr. Yadav, Dr. M. P. Patel, Dr. Avasare, Dr. Pendbhaje, Dr. Tate, etc used to come daily for playing badminton on our society ground every morning and used to depart only after a cup of tea. We had small excursions of our group in between our consulting timings and really enjoyed and cherished our friendships.

Nallasopara Medical Association was born during the same era in 1992 during our daily meetings and today it boasts of a membership of more than 300 doctors. The first annual function was an orchestra where late Dr. B. R. Sawant, Mrs. Sawant, Dr. Ram Warrier, Dr. Rajesh Jain, Myself and my wife Dr. Varsha had performed. Every night rehearsals would take place upto 1 am when I would personally drop the music arrangers at their respective residences from Vasai to Virar. Dr. Santosh Kadam had mesmerised everybody with a dance performance, while daughters of

Dr. Turakhiya, Dr. Menon etc had solo dance performances. Year 1999 was a turning point when my wife Dr. Varsha went for training in Endoscopy with Padmashree Dr. Amit Maydeo Sir. She learnt the procedures under his able guidance

Gastroscopy and Colonoscopy).

Year 2000 was again a landmark year when Myself, Varsha and Dr. Rajesh Tate attended a course in Laparoscopic Surgery at Hyderabad. Then started an era of advanced laparoscopy in our Vasai taluka. My godfather in Laparoscopy Dr. Jyotsna and Dr. Sanjay Kulkarni used to guide us a lot. His basic teaching was Always spread knowledge". And on these principles we came into contact with Dr. Kanekar, Dr. Shinde, Dr. Akerkar, Dr. (Mrs.) Kunda Joshi & Dr. Harshad Patil; all of them very senior to me. We helped each other and together we progressed. Concerned with the concept of zero entertainment in our area, Swarankit was founded in year 1995 with eight music lovers from our area to promote classical music. Till today nearly 450 programmes have been done in classical and light vocal music & dignitaries like Pt. Hridaynath Mangeshkar, Pt. Suresh and Pt. Padmatai Talwalkar, Pt. Veena Sahastrabudhe, Pt. Sanjeev Abhyankar etc have graced the stage of Swarankit.

We have always tried our best to create social awareness amongst common public. Programme on Diabetes was done in Marathi at Funfiesta theatre in 2007 with 10 doctors - Dr. Sane, Dr. Vinit and Dr. Sumedha Dandawate, and others participating and was well attended by 250 common people. Cable TV rights were purchased for duration of 1 year in 2008 when primetime programmes were beamed to Vasai, Naigaon, Nallasopara and Virar for 12 months on topics ranging from Immunisation, Menopause, Anaesthesia, Endoscopy, Hypertension, Diabetes, Cancer etc and was well appreciated by all the cable viewers.

Our entire hospital was Airconditioned in year 2012 and has been a relief to even general ward patients especially in summer. Latest feather in our cap has been availability of WiFi for our patients for good highspeed connectivity for Emails and WhatsApp.

Environmental friendly attitude was a topmost priority for us in 2014. Our hospital was put on green and safe energy production by Solar Energy production for 12KVA units, highest project ever in our area. The entire Operation theatre, airconditioner and accessories, consulting airconditioner, entire hospital tubes and fans, waterpump, autoclave etc are on solar energy during daytime.

ISO certification & FEQH certification was procured in 2007 for quality management and has been sincerely and strictly followed till today.

Looking back at all the years I feel that it would be worth sharing our experiences with great friends and well wishers in our association. I wish all the new members of our association a warm welcome.

अब तक का सफर था लंबा जरूर पर आप सभी जो साथ थे। इस मोड पर आ थमे हैं कदम, बीती डगर बहुत याद आने लगी।

राहे आगे पुकार रही हैं हमे, बस, दूर मंजील तक चलते जाना है। हो जाएंगे ये रास्ते भी सुहाने गर साथ रहेंगी आप की दुआएँ ।

STAY TOGETHER AND PROSPER TOGETHER