Principles of

Sathya Sai Ideal Healthcare

 

Universal Healthcare

Sri Sathya Sai Baba has repeatedly emphasised that state-of-the-art healthcare should be available to all people and especially the poor. In keeping with this commitment, He has established a chain of super-specialty and general hospitals delivering the best medical care to all.

“The Sathya Sai Hospital has been set up to provide relief to villagers. No distinction is made, however, between villages and cities. Diseases do not afflict only villagers. They make no territorial distinctions. Likewise, there will be no differentiation in providing relief. Our intention is to provide relief to all.”

–Sri Sathya Sai Baba, 1991

 

Free Healthcare

Sri Sathya Sai Baba has deemed that high quality healthcare should be delivered free of cost to all patients so that no one is prevented from receiving the highest benefits of healthcare. Every Sri Sathya Sai Hospital delivers such care free of cost to the patients.

“Medical services should be free for all. There are numerous people who cannot afford the costs of medical treatment. Doctors should render free service to such persons.”

–Sri Sathya Sai Baba, 1995

 

Loving Healthcare

Sri Sathya Sai Baba has prescribed that healthcare workers should deliver medical care with love and compassion thereby elevating the healthcare worker to a healer and the patient to the reality of a divine soul.

“If the doctor is full of love and compassion, God works through him. Doctors, therefore, have to endeavour to become the receptacles of Divine Power during their healing process.”

–Sri Sathya Sai Baba, 1980

 

Comprehensive Healthcare

Medical care is for the whole patient. Ideal healthcare encompasses treatment of the body, mind, and spirit.

“Man suffers from two types of ills, physical and mental. They are caused by disequilibrium of the three tempers and three Gunas (tendencies). Physical health is a prerequisite for mental health and mental health ensures physical health.”

–Sri Sathya Sai Baba, 1959

 

Preventive Healthcare

Sri Sathya Sai Baba has said that the duty of the physician is not only to treat with love and compassion but to educate patients in healthy living and thus prevent frequent visits to physicians and hospitals.

“The current belief is that medicine is to be valued for its use during illness. But this point of view has to change. Medicine is used to see that one does not fall ill, just as the purpose of truth is to so live that one is not subjected to birth again.”

–Sri Sathya Sai Baba, 1980

Contents

Foreword 1

Sri Sathya Sai Medical Institutions in India: 3

Crest Jewel of Ideal Healthcare

Sri Sathya Sai General Hospitals • Sri Sathya Sai Institute of Higher Medical Sciences, Puttaparthi • Sri Sathya Sai Institute of Higher Medical Sciences, Whitefield

Preventive Healthcare and Public Health 7

The SAINET Project in Kenya • Human Values-Based Water Education Programme • Ideal Healthcare: A Focus on Preventive Care • The Challenge of Global Epidemic of Obesity and Type 2 Diabetes • Prevention of Cervical Cancer • Sri Sathya Sai Drinking Water Projects in India

Reports from India, USA, Dominican Republic, El Salvador, Argentina, Brazil, Paraguay, Peru, Greece, UK, Nigeria, Sierra Leone, Zambia/Kenya, Dubai, Indonesia, Lao PDR, Philippines, Australia

Medical Camps 33

India, USA, Dominican Republic, El Salvador, Mexico, Panama, Argentina, Brazil, Paraguay, Uruguay, Venezuela, Guyana, Jamaica, Trinidad, Bosnia and Herzegovina, Poland, Switzerland, UK, Russia, Kazakhstan, Ukraine, Sathya Sai Vision for Africa, Kenya, Malawi, Sierra Leone, South Africa, Abu Dhabi, Dubai, Kuwait, Oman, Qatar, Indonesia, Lao PDR, Malaysia, Mauritius, Nepal, Sri Lanka, Taiwan, Thailand, Australia, Fiji, New Zealand

Medical Clinics 69

USA, El Salvador, Mexico, Panama, Argentina, Brazil, Colombia, Peru, Venezuela, South Africa, Abu Dhabi, Indonesia, Sri Lanka, Vietnam

Disaster Relief 73

India, USA, El Salvador, Mexico, Peru, UK, Russia, China, Indonesia, Myanmar, Sri Lanka

Rehabilitation Programmes 85

USA, Costa Rica, El Salvador, Colombia, Greece, Botswana, Nigeria, Kuwait, China, Sri Lanka, Taiwan, Fiji, New Zealand

Sri Sathya Sai International Centre for Medical Services 89

Medical Conferences and Seminars 91

Sri Sathya Sai International Medical Conference – 2005 • Sri Sathya Sai International Orthopaedic Conferences 2008 and 2009 • Sri Sathya Sai International Dental Conference – 2009 • El Salvador: “Sathya Sai Ideal Healthcare” – 2009 • Germany: “Human Values in Medicine” – 2008 • UK: “The Humanisation of Medicine” – 2006 • Fiji: “Make the Difference” – 2008

Medical seminars held in Argentina, Bolivia, Bosnia and Herzegovina, Colombia

Vision for the Future 103

Impact of Telehealth on Healthcare • Mobile Clinics • Sri Sathya Sai Mobile Hospital