The unprecedented times due to Covid-19 pandemic have demanded some extraordinary efforts from the healthcare professionals. Air Marshal (Dr.) Rajan Chaudhry, AVSM, VSM (Retd.), advisor, medical services, Tata Steel is one such rare example of the city.
He is keeping a relatively regular working hours by overseeing the work at Tata Main Hospital (TMH) in Jamshedpur. The good doctor's plans worked swimmingly well for four years until March 2020 when the global Covid-19 pandemic knocked at India’s doors too.
Despite having served in the armed forces for nearly four decades, he considers his work during the pandemic at TMH a tad more overwhelming. The sheer size and intensity of the two waves of the pandemic that India has endured so far seemed to have even eclipsed the challenges he had faced during the years he spent in Udhampur where he worked in the Command Hospital of Northern Command.
Having grown up in a city that is home to Indian Military Academy, he decided to get his MBBS from the Armed Forces Medical College (AFMC) in Pune even if it meant he had to live nearly 1,700 km from his home, a decision that would serve him and his country well.
“I particularly liked my tenure as a senior gastrointestinal surgeon during my posting in Udhampur where we handled a large number of gunshot wounds and casualties. It was a great experience not just for surgical skills but also management, team building, quick response and whatnot. That paid me good dividends in my subsequent movement when I moved in as professor of surgery to my alma mater AFMC in Pune. After a long tenure there I came back into a senior rank in administration, though I continued with some of my surgical skills and practice. I became more engrossed in administration to finally retire as Director General Medical services, IAF in June 2016,” he recalls.
As for Dr Chaudhry, the two waves of the pandemic were the ultimate test for everything he had learned and endured in the previous four and half decades as a medical professional, first as an officer in the armed forces and later as a civilian doctor and administrator since June 2016 when he joined TMH.
“As I look back, my five years with Tata Steel has been an extremely rewarding and a good journey which few can dream of,” he said.
In the midst of the pandemic, Dr Chaudhry had also switched his role as General Manager Medical Services to Advisor Medical Services while overseeing Tata Steel’s healthcare services not just in Jharkhand but also in Odisha and other locations in India.