V. Pugalagiri, Chairman and Managing Director of Vadamalayan Hospitals, addressing the media in Madurai on Thursday.
| Photo Credit: SPECIAL ARRANGEMENT
Established in 1957 as a 35-bed nursing home and inaugurated by late Chief Minister K. Kamaraj, Vadamalayan Hospital, which has expanded manifold over the years, would continue to dedicate its services to needy people using the latest technology and the best infrastructural facilities, said its Chairman and Managing Director V. Pugalagiri here on Thursday.Speaking to media persons on the eve of the hospital’s 70th year of service, he said its founder, late P. Vadamalayan, had the vision of addressing patients' agony first. He advocated evidence-based and ethical treatment. After travelling extensively in the U.S. and Europe in the 1940s, he established a nursing home in 1957 at Chokkikulam in Madurai, Dr. Pugalagiri said.In the last six decades, the hospital had achieved not only a high success rate in patient recovery but had also added more facilities, including a nuclear medicine department and an oncology department. He said Vadamalayan Hospital, a multi-speciality institution, had plans to intensify its services in cervical and breast screening for women.The hospital had been a frontrunner and had introduced numerous services for patients. Doctors, the paramedical team and staff in every ward and department treated patients with warmth and a personal touch, which remained unique to the institution, Dr. Pugalagiri said.Recalling the hospital’s Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR) activities, he said that since its inception, Vadamalayan Hospitals had been giving back to society in one form or another, especially to needy people, as per the wishes of the founder.For instance, whenever the government introduced welfare programmes, Vadamalayan was the first to support such initiatives. In a bid to prevent the rise in road accidents on the highways, it was Vadamalayan Hospital that opened the Vadipatti Trauma Centre with an emergency vehicle. Subsequently, the Tamil Nadu government implemented the idea across major stretches and districts, with such a facility every 50 km.With the objective of reaching out to more people, Vadamalayan Hospital opened a unit in neighbouring Dindigul district about six years ago, said Joint Managing Director P. Chandra. She added that a mobile unit with doctors travelled extensively, conducting health camps and rendering quality care at the doorsteps of people in rural pockets.Through the Vadamalayan Memorial Trust, the hospital has been extending financial assistance to needy patients who are economically weak. “Just because someone did not have money, he or she should not be deprived of quality healthcare,” she said. With this objective, “we march forward to render yeomen service in the years to come as well,” she added. Published - September 10, 2026 07:26 pm IST
