Siddha garden at PHC a boon for patients
D Madhavan TNN
Chennai: The past eight years, S Meenakshi, a 65-year-old patient from Medavakkam has been suffering severe back pain. Hardly able to sleep at night, she would ask her son to give her a painkiller. However, once she began to avail treatment at the siddha clinic in the upgraded Primary Healthcare Centre (PHC) in Medavakkam three months ago, her pain has reduced considerably. At the clinic, built in 1982, Meenakshi is treated with an extract from herbal plants being grown at the new siddha garden on the PHC premises. “I visited many hospitals to seek treatment for my back pain. But the siddha treatment has really made a difference,” says Meenakshi. The garden is now turning into a lifesaver in the suburbs. Said to be the first PHC there to have a siddha garden, there are more than 80 medicinal herbs and plants spread over 20,000 sq ft. Before the garden came up, the place was a dump yard covered by weeds. It was on July 14 that state health secretary V K Subburaj announced at a function at the PHC that a new siddha garden would be developed on the site, and thereafter the transformation slowly began. The process was not easy, though. Medical staff, including siddha medical officer, Dr T R Siddique Ali, and medical officer in charge of Medavakkam PHC, Dr Ramya Gowri, found it difficult to source the herbal plants needed. Thanks to the cooperation extended by the Centre for Traditional Medicine and Research, a city-based NGO that works on traditional medicine, and the state forest department, Dr Ali and Dr Ramya were able to source most of the herbal plants from the two agencies free of cost. They received guidance from district (Kancheepuram) health officer, Dr P M Krishna Kumar, on cultivation of herbal plants used often by patients.
THE HERBAL WAY: Dr Siddique Ali at the siddha garden in the Medavakkam public health centre
D Madhavan TNN
Chennai: The past eight years, S Meenakshi, a 65-year-old patient from Medavakkam has been suffering severe back pain. Hardly able to sleep at night, she would ask her son to give her a painkiller. However, once she began to avail treatment at the siddha clinic in the upgraded Primary Healthcare Centre (PHC) in Medavakkam three months ago, her pain has reduced considerably. At the clinic, built in 1982, Meenakshi is treated with an extract from herbal plants being grown at the new siddha garden on the PHC premises. “I visited many hospitals to seek treatment for my back pain. But the siddha treatment has really made a difference,” says Meenakshi. The garden is now turning into a lifesaver in the suburbs. Said to be the first PHC there to have a siddha garden, there are more than 80 medicinal herbs and plants spread over 20,000 sq ft. Before the garden came up, the place was a dump yard covered by weeds. It was on July 14 that state health secretary V K Subburaj announced at a function at the PHC that a new siddha garden would be developed on the site, and thereafter the transformation slowly began. The process was not easy, though. Medical staff, including siddha medical officer, Dr T R Siddique Ali, and medical officer in charge of Medavakkam PHC, Dr Ramya Gowri, found it difficult to source the herbal plants needed. Thanks to the cooperation extended by the Centre for Traditional Medicine and Research, a city-based NGO that works on traditional medicine, and the state forest department, Dr Ali and Dr Ramya were able to source most of the herbal plants from the two agencies free of cost. They received guidance from district (Kancheepuram) health officer, Dr P M Krishna Kumar, on cultivation of herbal plants used often by patients.
THE HERBAL WAY: Dr Siddique Ali at the siddha garden in the Medavakkam public health centre
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