Five city doctors and two institutions, Government Hospital of Thoracic Medicine, Tambaram Sanitorium and the Aravind Sai Eye Hospital, Pammal, received the Dr K.S. Sanjivi award on Thursday, the World Doctors’ Day, for the service they have rendered to the society.

Governor Surjit Singh Barnala gave out the awards, named in memory of Dr Sanjivi, the doyen of community health care in the city and founder of Voluntary Health Services, Taramani. The doctors chosen for the awards were Dr V. Pugazhendi, Dr K. Muralidharan, Dr M.S. Chandragupta, Dr S. Balambal and Dr M. Krishnakanth.
The Confederation of Indian Organisations for Service and Advocacy, a network of 134 NGOs, and Udhavum Ullangal had instituted the awards in 2004.
The governor called upon the medical fraternity to serve in rural areas as well. “Doctors who have specialized in various branches of medical sciences may got to villages at least twice a month to serve the needy in the rural areas. Otherwise, they would denied access to specialised health care,” Dr Barnala said.
The nominations were provided by the NGOs under the CIOSA banner and the 2005 awardees. The CIOSA and Udhavum Ullangal then chose this year’s awardees with inputs from Dr N.S. Murali of the VHS.
In his welcome address, Mr M.K. Pandia Rajan, founder trustee, CIOSA, said the awards were given to doctors who believed in the beauty of their dreams. “The doctors and institutions honoured here today pursued service. They may not be on the frontiers of science but they give themselves completely. This is not a proficiency award. This is for doctors with a heart,” Mr Rajan said.
Dr M.K. Srinivasan, the chairman and president of the Public Health Centre, West Mambalam, stressed on the importance of providing quality medical care to the lower middle class. He called upon doctors to provide voluntary medical service. “All of those to be awarded have provided exemplary voluntary service,” he said.