Prof. Ian Olver attended the Extra ordinary General Meeting of the Council which took place on January 19th & 20th, 2012. He presents a report on the procedings.

This meeting in January was dominated by a few major issues. The first was a detailed discussion on the next development of the Chittoor Campus. Dr Raju Titus Chacko provided a detailed overview of the current development of the North and South Campuses in Andhra Pradesh. The South campus is 76.45 acres at Kannigapuram and the North at Chittoor will be 640.17 acres of which just under 615 have been handed over.

The Chittoor Campus  

The work that is currently being done is to fence the two properties. On the Chittoor Campus an Outpatient Dispensary Block has been completed and patients are currently being seen there.  The chapel is currently being constructed. The next step is for a 100 bed community hospital.

The main issue for Council was approval of a master planning process. This was approved. The challenge is to have a fully integrated site. This will include experts in town planning, architecture hydro-geology and environmental engineering. There will be an international search for consultants.

I visited both of the sites with a great sense of excitement. Many who looked over the lands of the Chittoor campus could not fail to realise that once Ida Scudder looked over the sites of the City and Bagayam campuses and envisioned what they would grow into. The North site has sources of water and hills which will be greened and water harvesting planned to sustain the further growth of the campus. There also needs to be a vision and what was discussed was a Christian University of Health Sciences on the campus.

Staff

The meeting revisited the arguments over whether the retirement age should be altered and discussed salary issues. The balance always is to provide opportunities for junior staff but being able to attract staff to provide the service necessary. The salary structure has always required a commitment to service but needs also to show are for the staff employed. These are ongoing issues

Trust

The option for a taxable trust for commercial activities has been explored since the 2010 consultation. This would allow scaling up of the achievements of CMC and services to be able to offer them more widely on a commercial basis. The concept was approved and the administration charged with exploring the next steps.

There were other reports which I will not detail. One was the letter from New Zealand resigning their representative position on Council due to the decline of the FOV in New Zealand. I undertook to explore whether the Australian group can provide a vehicle for continued association on New Zealanders with Vellore. Other issues included reviews of nursing and the fire safety of the hospital which serve to demonstrate the complexity of managing a multi-campus hospital. There is always the issue of how to best support the network of Mission hospitals. CMC Vellore must straddle the spectrum of primary through to quaternary care and must weight each according to how it sees its mission.  All discussion is underpinned by seeking to discern God?s will for how the hospital can best serve the needs of the people of India.

   I was able to present a report on the Australian Friends of Vellore activities at a dinner for the Council on the lawns of the Big Bungalow and renew acquaintances with many faculty members who have trained in Australia. Most prominent of these was Sunil Chandy who trained in Adelaide and who is the Director designate. I am assured of a continued strong relationship between CMC and the Australian FOV

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