NOWSHERA: People on Sunday paid rich tributes to late Dr Phag Chand for the medical and social services which the dedicated Sikh physician had rendered in four decades before losing his life to Covid-19 two years ago.
They offered homage to the Sikh doctor on eve of his second death anniversary which falls on June 1.
Dr Phag Chand widely known as the doctor of the poor was born to a Sikh Malhotra family in 1955 at the Pir Baba village of the Buner district of Khyber Pakhtunkhwa.
He was the youngest among the siblings and lost his mother in his infancy. His father Sundar Das and his grandmother raised him and he received early education in his native village.
Phag Chand completed his secondary education at Government High School Gadezai and FSc from Jehanzeb College Swat.
He graduated from Khyber Medical College in 1978 and was awarded the Presidential Award for his academic achievements.
Dr Phag Chand launched his career in medicine at Saidu Sharif Hospital. He showed signs of an astute clinician from the very beginning with excellent diagnostic skills and clinical acumen.
The late doctor gained attention and respect as a dedicated physician when he moved to Buner in the early part of the 80s.
He lived in Totalai and Gokhand villages for almost 10 years and provided relentless but affordable healthcare to the rural community there.
Patients from far-flung areas would visit him due to his professionalism and his personal interest in helping the poor of society. He would charge a Rs 10 nominal fee and treat the patients affectionately.
Dr Phag Chand moved to Swabi in the mid-90s and earned admiration there as well. He would write the word “free” on prescriptions and would encourage the labs and allied health services to provide similar free services to non-affording patients.
When the word of his low fees spread everywhere, he was reportedly approached by the local medical fraternity and asked to increase his consultation fee but Dr Phag Chand refused to do so. Instead, he provided his services with more zeal.
He moved to Nowshera in the year 2002 but continued to serve both Swabi and Nowshera districts till his death. He would travel daily to Swabi where hundreds of patients would wait for him and in the evenings, he provide his services to the public in Nowshera.
Dr Phag Chand was humble and easily approachable and would never refuse to see a patient when requested. He was often seen in his car and on the streets approached by patients and writing prescriptions to people free of charge.
Towards the end of his career, his fee was just Rs 50 when others would charge much higher.
Dr Phag Chand was a patriotic man who loved the soil of Khyber Pakhtunkhwa and preferred to live and serve the people of his soil as if he felt indebted to them for generations.
In the first wave of Covid when his both private clinics were shut down, patients from all over would still visit Dr Phag Chand at his doorsteps and they were never returned without being examined.
Dr Phag Chand contracted Covid-19 while examining patients in the first wave of the pandemic and was initially admitted to a hospital in Islamabad for two weeks but later shifted to Northwest Hospital Peshawar where he breathed his last at the age of 65. His final funeral rituals were held at Ram Bhag in Mardan.
He is survived by a wife and three children. His two sons - Dr Gurmeet Kumar and Dr Jaitan Kumar – practice medicine while his daughter is a qualified Orthotist.
Those who came into contact with late Dr Phag Chand say he would always stay alive in the hearts of people for his selfless services to the community.
