Bethel Hospital

The Bethel Hospital has been in operation for nearly 30 years. It functions to bring comprehensive medical care to the people of the village of Danishpet and its surrounding communities. It used to operate free-of-charge to its patients; however, in recent days, it had been forced to charge for its services, due to lack of support.

I met with Dr. Angelina who is said to be one of the hospitals most committed Doctors. As I walked with her through the hospital I got to hear stories of the hospital's golden days. She told me of a full-fledged medical staff of doctors and surgeons who would faithfully work to care for the great influx of patients--sometimes even forfeiting meals to do so. Sadly, that was not the hospital that I saw today. I passed ward after ward of empty beds, now gathering dust. We passed an ICU, and a fully-equipped radiology lab, a cardiology lab, laparoscopy and endoscopy rooms, and full Operating Rooms equipped for major surgeries, but nearly everything seemed to lay quiet and empty.

This was not the case with the dental clinic. It seemed to be the office that was still alive and active in seeing patients. Since most people only visited the dentist when something was seriously wrong, the gums and teeth that they examined were usually beyond repair. I got to be present during the examination of one patient. Nearly all of this particular patients teeth were mobile. They were black and brown with neglect and her gums were red due to bleeding and because of staining from "beetlenut", a kind of rural tobacco found in South-east asia, which is known to cause many kinds of oral cancers and, of course, tooth decay. It was interesting that the poor dental care of this woman was not because she lacked money. I was told that, in fact, she was very wealthy, and own many acres of land here in the village. However, they believed was that dental care was a kind of vice and that the money would be much better spent on jewelry and ornamentation. Instead of going to the dentist, people would commonly go to "quack" doctors, who would give them injections of things, in hopes that the pain from the patients rotting teeth would go away.

Dr. Angelina explained to me that much of their work began at the level of basic education. Teaching how to your teeth, and how to prevent from gum disease, and the worth of investing in oral health. I spent quite a bit of time there talking to the dentists and technicians about how a ministry like this operates, what kind of patients they see, and how a missions hospital such as this had developed. It was clear to see that a hospital such this held great importance.

One thing that was especially impressive was that many of the people on staff were those who were called, "Bethel Kids." This distinction generally meant that these kids were a successful product of the Bethel Institute. Many of these workers, had literally begun as an unwanted baby, in the Bethel Orphanage, they had been raised and gotten a proper education at the Bethel school, received professional training in nursing or medicine, and then decided to return to work as a part of the hospital. One "Bethel girl" working at the hospital has met another "Bethel boy" and was now starting a "Bethel Family" while working as a Pharmacist at the Bethel Hospital Pharmacy. In fact, many of the people left at bethel hospital had been there for 20+ years--they were the faithful few. The Bethel institute was the world that they knew.

However, Dr. Angelina has a lot of concern for the sustainability of a ministry such as this. Bethel hospital, for the most part, is empty. It is becoming increasingly difficult to sustain a regular staff of doctors and nurses to work in a rural community, with very little pay. The hospital is supported by the modest fees that it collects for its services, and slowly diminishing foreign support from the US and Netherlands. With so much equipment, potential and such a history and mission, it is a tragedy to think that something like this might not be able to last.