CHENNAI: The massive funeral that turned out to condole the death of North Chennai’s ‘Two-Rupee Doctor’ has inspired his family members to provide affordable treatment for poor patients. Fondly known as ‘People’s Doctor’ for charging Rs 2 to treat those from humble backgrounds, late Dr S Jayachandran’s family members have revived the practice at the clinic in Old Washermenpet. Instead of paying any fee, poor patients place their affordable fee before the late physician’s portrait after treatment.“We do not want to his services to the poor and needy to end. Our family is carrying the cause forward, where my children and I are continuing to treat the economically weaker sections without demanding any fee,” Dr C Veni, wife of Jayachandran told TOI. The former medical superintendent of Rajiv Gandhi Government General Hospital (RGGGH) said patients have started trickling in after they came to know that curtains have not been drawn at the clinic at the Venkatachalam Street in Old Washermenpet. “My husband used to treat 200 patients throughout the day. Though we do not have patients of that scale, 30 patients visit us daily on an average at the clinic,” she said.While Veni, who is employed in a private medical college at Chromepet, visits the clinic in the morning, her children Dr J Saravana Jegan and Dr J Sarath Raj treat patients in the evenings. The clinic operates for 12 hours between 9.30am and 9.30pm with one of them available for patients.Sarath Raj said he made an entry to the clinic on a regular basis after his father became critically ill from October last year and subsequently passed away on December 19, 2018.“Indeed, I had hardly treated any patient along with my father at the clinic. But, his death, for which hundreds of people thronged for the funeral brought a spark in me,” he said. According to Sarath Raj, who is an assistant professor in a government hospital in Chennai, no fee is charged for poor patients at the clinic. “It could be Rs 3 or Rs 5. We ask them to place their fee before my dad’s portrait,” he said. Philanthropists and local organizations are offering drugs and medicine that would be provided free of cost for poor patients.Jayachandran was running the clinic for more than three decades at Old Washermenpet. Beginning to charge Rs 2 as consultation fee from poor patients in Kasimedu, Kodungaiyur and poor localities of North Chennai in the 1990s, he was charging Rs 10 during his last days in 2018. Prime Minister Narendra Modi, chief minister Edappadi K. Palaniswami and various political leader had condoled his death.G Jothi, a patient, recalls getting treated for just Rs 5 in the last 18 years. “I am a caretaker for senior citizens. For people like me, this clinic is the only solace during illness,” she added.

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