Dr JL Bhatia who set up TB sanatorium in city no more
Obituary: Dr Jagdish Lal Bhatia (1.11.1924 to 1.6.2021)
Tribune news service
Amritsar, June 1
Dr Jagdish Lal Bhatia, 96, a pioneer in treatment of tuberculosis and dedicated his entire life to eradicate the dreaded disease, passed away in the wee hours on June 1 at his residence. He is survived by son Dr Deepak Bhatia and daughter Myna Kakkar. He was the younger brother of Congress stalwart and former External Affairs Minister Raghunandan Lal Bhatia, who also passed away a few weeks ago.
He was born on November 1, 1924, into a well-established business family in Amritsar. After completing his early education at a local school here, Dr JL Bhatia joined Government Medical College for his MBBS. After his marriage in 1952 to Meera Bhatia, a Master’s in Zoology from Lucknow, he was offered scholarship to complete his higher medical education in Scotland in the UK where he qualified as Fellow of Royal College of Physicians (FRCP) and returned to India to fulfil his passion to serve poor of the poorest.
His first posting after completing his FRCP was at TB Sanatorium, being run at Dharampur near Solan (Himachal Pradesh), where he learnt to cure TB patients and opted to serve his city. Dr JL Bhatia was instrumental in setting up a specialised TB Sanatorium in Amritsar attached to the Government Medical College in 1958 designed to treat and cure TB, rampaging the country at the time due to unhygienic and poverty conditions. He continued to actively practise medicine till last year, offering free consultation and medicines to patients.
Recalling several incidents, his son Dr Deepak Bhatia, who is a senior orthopaedic surgeon based in Dubai, said porters at the railway station, taxi drivers and even ordinary people whom he had cured would recognise him and offer their services for free. A senior physician from the city and one of his students, Dr P C Arora said Dr Bhatia would detect TB signs with just one glance at the X-ray while his prescription was very precise. The current head of Department of TB and Chest Diseases, Government Medical College, Dr Naveen Pandey in a condolence message to family today said that Dr JL Bhatia’s foresight to set up TB Sanatorium with all facilities for complete treatment was a definitive service to community, especially the poor.
