The Neuro Hospital ‘Gift of the people for the people’

The Neuro Hospital (Institute of Neurology) on Kynsey road opposite the De Soysa Maternity Hospital, is 30 years old. It is a unique hospital built entirely from public donations in the short space of three years. The Lake House group of newspapers helped in no small measure to make this unusual project a success, by giving publicity to the project, the progress and donors.

Diseases of the nervous system affect the brain, spinal cord, nerves and muscles. If they are not diagnosed early and treated adequately, the patient may be disabled for life. Even in the 1970s the patient with a neurological ailment did not receive the special attention they needed. A few beds were allocated in the general medical wards for the neurologically ill patient with little or no special attention. At that time there were no CT scanners or MRI scanners, and diagnosis depended on traumatic investigations like angiography, myelography and electromyography, for which there was a quota and a waiting list. The only non interventional investigation available was the EEG and even this machine was located in the surgical unit. Medical neurology was a much neglected specialty.

Thus there was an urgent need for a specialized unit or hospital where neurological disorders could be diagnosed early and accurately and managed by specialized staff. It was the lack of these facilities that led to the concept of a separate Neuro hospital where all the facilities for diagnosis and treatment are available under one roof, as is available in the Institute of Neurology of today. To start this ambitious project was not easy. All the necessary items were missing viz: land, funds and a suitable contractor willing to undertake an unusual project without and advance or adequate safeguards for payment.

With difficulty we found a narrow strip of land adjacent to the Kynsey road opposite the De Soysa Maternity home which served as garages for consultants. There were two obstacles - a large tree which needed special permission for felling and removal and the standby generator for the General hospital which had to be relocated at an immense cost, which we were able to obtain from the President's fund.

Having circumvented this initial obstacle, we had to have plans drawn for a custom built Neuro hospital. Fortunately, the Design Consortium headed by Navin Gooneratne came to our rescue by drawing the plans free of charge. He also requested Mohan Coomaraswamy to provide the necessary technical input and regular follow up of the building process.

The biggest challenge was still to come - obtaining funds. We were given the encouragement we needed by a donation for the ground floor by Milina Sumathipala, in memory of her husband. The first fund raising function was held in the official residence of the then Medical superintendent, Dr Joe Fernando with Hema Premadasa, the wife of the Prime Minister Ranasinghe Premadasa as the chief guest. We needed a steady flow of funds to keep the building programme in motion and for this we needed an energetic committee. Fortunately, the Hospital Welfare Services of the All Ceylon Buddhist Congress headed by Venerable Vipassi were able to muster a small dedicated committee for the purpose. It was virtually going round with a 'begging bowl' for a worthy cause. We had two regular meetings every week - on Sundays to discuss funding and Thursdays to discuss technical details. It was a 'turn key job' in construction parlance - build while collecting funds, in spite of which there wasn't a single day off work.