Union Minister for Health and Family Welfare Shri Ghulam Nabi Azad Visits Operation Smile’s Comprehensive Care Center in Guwahati, Assam
January 30, 2012 — Rohan Das, Manager of Marketing and Fundraising, Operation Smile India
Today Shri Ghulam Nabi Azad, Honorable Minister for Health and Family Welfare, Government of India visited Operation Smile’s Comprehensive Care Center at the MMC Hospital in Guwahati, India.
The Minister was received by Major General M.S. Sandhu, VSM (Retd.), Executive Trustee, of Operation Smile India. The Minister was given a tour of the state-of-the-art cleft care facility by the Center Director Shri Mahesh Kumar Deori and the Medical Director Dr. Alex Campbell, M.D.
The Minister watched a presentation that encapsulated the key features of Operation Smile’s mission worldwide, the center’s facility and how Operation Smile’s work in Assam, in collaboration with the State Government, has emerged as a global role model.
Operation Smile’s Comprehensive Care Center situated in Mahendra Mohan Choudhury Hospital in Panbazar, Guwahati, is the outcome of the unique public private partnership between Operation Smile and the Government of Assam and supported by the Sir Dorabji Tata Trust & Allied Trusts.
It is the most sophisticated, comprehensive cleft care facility in South East Asia. Since it went operational in May 2011, 1,814 surgeries have been conducted at the center.
After it went operational, the center has also hosted Operation Smile’s international cleft medical missions, where visiting teams of medical volunteers provide higher number of surgeries by increasing capacity.
Currently, the twelfth international cleft medical mission is going on at the center. During this medical mission, held between January 28 and February 6, the medical volunteer team will collaborate with the existing center team and perform 125 surgeries for children in need born with facial deformities. All patients receiving surgeries are provided free post-operative care at the Comprehensive Care Center year-round.
After the Minister’s visit to the center, Maj. Gen. M.S. Sandhu said, “It was a matter of great honor for all of us at Operation Smile Comprehensive Care Center in Guwahati to play host to the Honorable Health Minister of India. Shri Ghulam Nabi Azad was very pleased to see the work and achievements of our center."
"We hope with his guidance we shall be able to replicate the Assam model of cleft care in other parts of India. We are very proud of the work we have been doing here in Assam. The Health Minister of Assam Dr. Himanta Biswa Sarma, along with the Honorable Chief Minister of Assam Shri Tarun Gogoi, have been very kind supporters of Operation Smile and we highly appreciate their guidance in our journey towards creating a cleft free Assam,” said Maj. Gen. M.S. Sandhu.
