November 30: The world went through a nightmarish phase in the past couple of years due to the COVID-19 pandemic, but there were some really great personalities who worked pretty hard to help others in critical times. Though the majority of us had the privilege of staying indoors with our family members, people with dental issues suffered a lot during this period because all the dentists had no option other than closing their clinics. The reason behind it is the fact that wearing masks was one of the biggest necessities in order to stop the spread of the virus, but in a dental clinic, the mask is the first thing that needs to be removed for treating a patient.
Dr. Uday Tamhankar, the founder of Ceramco Dental Clinic, which is India’s biggest private clinic, was continuously getting contacted by those who were having dental problems, and he gave a free consultation to each person who contacted him. Dr. Uday Tamhankar helped people like this for around 40 days, but then he strongly felt that something more needed to be done as many of his patients had been suffering a lot because of dental problems and taking antibiotics for a long period can also have a pretty adverse effect on their health.
It was then that Dr. Tamhankar decided to open his clinic for patients, and we must admit it was quite a courageous decision in view of the fact that many doctors who were around 50 yrs of age were not seeing patients, but Dr. Tamhankar chose to take this initiative even though he is 55 yrs old.
By the month of May, Dr. Tamhankar devised a plan, and from his own savings, he purchased aerosol box, extra oral suction and HEPA air purifiers filter for keeping his patients and his staff safe from the virus. He devised a system of screening patients for COVID-19 on the phone and then at the entry point of the clinic as he was very much concerned about the safety of his staff members.
The staff was pretty scared of working in such times, and Dr. Tamhankar understood it pretty well, so he purchased PPE kits for his staff members as well as patients. He also provided his staff members with chloroquine and other homeopathic medicines, which were recommended by leading and senior homeopathic doctors for saving them from COVID-19 and that too, absolutely free of cost. He provided his car and driver free of cost to his staff so that they would be safe from public transport. And he and his wife seldom travelled by rickshaws.
Dr. Uday Tamhankar is such a noble soul that he gave heavy discounts to some of his patients as he knew that jobs and businesses had been affected adversely in the times of pandemic, and he even treated some people for free who were left with no source of earning. It’s also highly commendable that he paid his staff full salary despite his own earnings being reduced to one-fourth in the COVID-19 pandemic.
Dr. Uday Tamhankar is certainly an inspiration for not just people of the medical fraternity but all of us as he kept the welfare of mankind above everything else and didn’t even care about his own life. It would be apt to say that people like him keep humanity alive in these times when it feels that people are just concerned about themselves.
The good thing is that the selfless service and efforts made by Dr. Uday Tamhankar have been recognized, and Times Applaud, the famous and highly esteemed Global Press Release Distribution Network, is honoring him with the COVID-19 Warrior Award 2021. What Dr. Tamhankar did in these tough times is certainly praiseworthy and applauding.
In order to stay away from negativity, Dr. Uday Tamhankar stopped surfing social media networks and watched only lectures by Shri. B.K. Shivani and for keeping himself relaxed; he also resorted to Yoga by watching videos on YouTube.
Dr. Uday Tamhankar founded Ceramco Dental Clinic in the year 1984, and in these 36 years, many patients have been served by him and his team, who have worked on the matter of improving the dental services in India.
We wish all the best to Dr. Uday Tamhankar for his future endeavours!
Vaishnavi Prakash
