A journey that started with eight beds has now crossed 700. ILS Hospitals, that started 25 years ago as a small laparoscopic surgery facility in DD Block, has spread wings and crossed the borders of Bengal.
The hospital celebrated its silver jubilee with the launch of a coffee table book on its evolution, titled Follow Your Passion. “The book captures our humble beginning, our quiet moments of healing and the long applause of success. They say a hospital is built brick by brick but runs on faith. Our story of growth reflects faith in our ability, trust from our patients and hope for the future,” said Dr Aruna Tantia, director and consultant surgeon, gynaecology and obstetrics. “Celebrating the past is important but building the future is essential,” she added.
The book also highlights the creative pursuits of its doctors, from photography to art, from singing to poetry.
Besides showcasing 25 years’ march through the opening of subsequent hospitals in Dum Dum, Howrah, and then Agartala and Raipur, an announcement was made of another hospital coming up in Jamshedpur. “We want two new hospitals by 2030,” said Dr Om Tantia, the hospital’s founder and managing director, sharing his vision.
Dr Tantia was also in nostalgic mood at having reached the milestone. “Watching Amitabh Bachchan playing a doctor in Anand influenced my decision to become one. I knew that if not a doctor, I’d become a contractor,” said the surgeon, who was among the earliest to embrace laparoscopic techniques in the state.
In his initial years, he would move from hospital to hospital, performing procedures, carrying his equipment in seven suitcases as none had the instruments that he used.
At the programme, he thanked his elder brother D.P. Tantia, the group chairman, for having enough faith in his abilities and his passion for minimal access surgery to build him a hospital with one operation theatre, a consultation room and eight beds in the second floor of their family’s office building. “From Day 1, all eight beds were full,” he recalled.
And when he purchased a harmonic scalpel (a state-of-the-art device that uses ultrasonic vibrations instead of electric current to cut and cauterize tissue), he told his
wife Aruna that he was buying a Mercedes Benz. “That’s how expensive it was.”
He paid tribute to his mentors as well as his departed colleagues.
Among colleagues, who were present on stage, Dr Ghanshyam Goyal, one of the directors, addressed the gathering of ILS staff members, recalling how he met Tantia in 1986 at Marwari Relief Society Hospital. “He was a resident in surgery and I in medicine.” The endocrinologist cum director wished that the hospital chain would grow up to 5,000 beds.
Dr Shashi Khanna and chief guest Debashish Biswas, a veteran mountaineer who has climbed multiple 8,000m-plus peaks, also addressed the gathering.