On Friday, May 6, 2022, Fairfax Financial Holdings, along with its business services provider Quess Corp, signed a Memorandum of Agreement (MoA) with the Christian Medical College (CMC), Vellore, to establish a new pediatric specialty care center on CMC’s Ranipet (formerly Kannigapuram) campus. Fairfax and Quess have pledged up to Rs 300 crore ($39 million) towards setting up this center, with the vision of providing leading state-of-the-art pediatric medical and surgical services. The proposed center, to be called the CMC Pediatric Specialty Center, will have 350 beds covering a range of pediatric specialties
In addition to treatment, the center will also focus on education, training, and research. This will help meet the medical needs of patients who are not only coming from different parts of India but from across the globe for consultation and treatment.
“The Fairfax-Quess/CMC partnership aims at supporting CMC’s culture of caring for the poor and vulnerable, and maintaining a fine balance between providing quality treatment while being inclusive and minimizing the financial burden on patients”, were the thoughts of Fairfax Financial Holdings Chairman and Founder, Prem Watsa. He also commented that “Fairfax is committed to giving back to the communities where we operate, and we believe this initiative will enable CMC to lead the way in transforming pediatric care in India.”
The center, upon completion, will operate out of a new building to be named the ‘Fairfax-Quess Block’ and will add to the existing capacity of the multi-specialty medical institution in Vellore. It will also support the development of programs, services, and resources that are scalable and transferable for potential expansion to future sites across the country. The Vellore CMC Foundation is also working in collaboration with Fairfax Financial Holdings to support the donor’s desire to successfully make charitable contributions to CMC through its headquarters in Toronto, Canada, and its operations in the U.S.
The MoA also outlines the formation of a ‘Project Implementation Committee’ that will be set up for the guidance, supervision, and management of the project during the planning, construction, and operational phases. The committee will be chaired by the director of CMC Vellore and will consist of members nominated by CMC Vellore, Fairfax, and Quess.
“We believe that pediatric specialization is the next priority for our country. With this center, we have come full circle from our initial focus on mothers and children to developing and providing specialized pediatric services and training programs for the country,” stated Dr. J.V. Peter, director of CMC.
“Quess, through its Care Works Foundation, has been supporting children’s wellbeing, health, and hygiene programs for years. This partnership takes our commitment to “impacting lives” further by improving medical care access for children in need,” said Ajit Isaac, chairman of Quess.
The pediatric center is a phase 2 project of CMC’s Ranipet campus. The phase 1 project, to be commissioned in the next couple of months, will focus on comprehensive trauma care in order to address the recent epidemic of road traffic accidents, as well as to bring about locally relevant and comprehensive healthcare solutions for victims of accidents.
