Nestled within a Portuguese styled house in a narrow by lane in Verna surrounded by lush green plants is Dr Roque Ferreira’s Memorial Hospital. Patients trickle in throughout the day seeking treatment for a variety of ailments. What makes this hospital unique is that apart from a doctor available during the morning hours the entire hospital is managed by nuns.
The ancestral house originally belonged to the Ferreira family. Dr Roque Ferreira worked as a doctor in Portugal and expressed a desire to run the ancestral home in Goa as a hospital since at that time there was no medical facility in and around the village of Verna. After his death his sister donated the house to the Cluny Sisters to transform into a small hospital as a memorial to her brother and the Dr Roque Ferreira’s Memorial Hospital opened its doors in 1963.
Dr Constance Monteiro the first doctor to work at the hospital offered his medical expertise for free. Another notable figure during the initial years was Sr Marie Rose from Ireland who served as a nurse and used to acquire medicines from abroad and distribute it among the poor. Locals used to know her as Ma Mere ( My Mother in French) and she died in Goa.
Sr Lissy Joseph who served in the hospital during the early years says ” when I came to the hospital in 1978, there was an Out Patient Department (OPD), maternity ward and male and female wards for elderly people.
Later the aged were shifted to different homes and the hospital began functioning in full swing with the addition of a pharmacy and an operation theater with doctors working in shifts.However as the years passed the staff dwindled and financial reasons forced the hospital to shut down.
The people from the locality felt the absence of the hospital and it was reopened after a span of nearly three years. Today the hospital is open 24/7 and has a part time doctor at the OPD while the sisters (two of whom are nurses) handle minor ailments as well as suturing. Blood tests are conducted through a tie up with a medical centre nearby. The hospital primarily serves the poor charging a bare minimum for its services, The Sisters also look after recuperating patients as well as elderly people residing at the premises for a particular period of time.
The hospital conducts free medical camps for people of the locality as well as home visits for the elderly who are unable to come to the hospital for medical treatment.To keep the hospital operational, funds are raised by organizing dramas as well as through donations given by the people.
The hospital is run by the congregation of the Sisters of St Joseph of Cluny. The Cluny Sisters are mainly involved in social activities in Goa and have three other houses in the state.A home for the aged in Nagoa, a technical institute at Vasco and the St Anthony’s Girls home in Verna.
At the hospital, Sr Judith Fernandes, Superior recalls an incident which they had to attend to urgently due to food poisoning allegedly caused by the mayonnaise used in Chicken rolls served at a function in the village. Many affected turned up at the hospital and were initially treated before being shifted to other places. This was an occasion when the hospital was very useful to the locals.
The love with which the sisters fulfill their calling is clearly evident from the warmth radiating from the sisters faces. Sr Judith sums it up by saying”More than medical treatment, you need to be good to the patients.Sometimes more than medicines, healing takes place if you treat them with kindness.
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