UK VC revisits rural hospital

CHENNAI: Not too many people  outside Cudappah district in Andhra Pradesh would have heard of the CSI Campbell Hospital in the town of Jammalamadugu. But for Professor Michael Farthing, the Vice-Chancellor of Sussex University and one of the most recognised researchers and academicians in the UK, the rural mission hospital remains the place that ‘shaped his career’; perhaps not in terms of expertise, but certainly as a reality check that showed him the state of medical care in an India that had just earned its independence. “I still remember how it was a world apart from the hospitals and conditions that I was used to in England. Tetanus and TB in little children were  almost unheard of there (in the UK) but it was a stark, mounting reality, in 1969,” he reminisced. Forty three years after the then medical student finished three months of training at the hospital, he returned to visit ‘Jammy’ as they called the town, this week. “It was remarkable,” he said simply, summing up the experience, “So much had changed and yet so little has changed,” he added paradoxically. He demystified that by revealing that there had been so much advancement in facilities there, but still, “the dedication of those doctors to work in a small hospital and refuse huge pay packets in the private sector, is something that Campbell has managed to hold firm.”This, of course, reminded him of another Indian medical giant that shares this same cherished value, “A few years after that, I came back to India and did some research work with the Wellcome Research Unit at CMC-Vellore. The relationship I had there is something that has lasted till this very day,” he said with pride. “Their focus on maintaining a high standard of healthcare while focussing just as much on research and development has brought them the reputation of being one of the best institutions in the world,” he added.Currently in India as part of Sussex University’s 50th anniversary commemoration, Farthing insists that having students from across the globe was the best way to shape ‘the future’ of academics,” I have been insisting to my students at Sussex that they undertake a trip to developing countries like India so that they have an experience of what conditions are like, outside their comfort areas,” he said and went on to add that Indian students were amongst the best that he had encountered on his multi-cultural campus. As academicians may remember, Farthing was one of the few who opposed the British Government’s proposals to clamp down on educational entries into UK varsities. “I have been coming to India so many times and I’m proud to say that every visit has endeared me to the place even further,” he said fondly. Will he be back? “You can count on it!”