In India, 75% of the healthcare infrastructure, including medical professionals, is concentrated in urban areas where only 27% of the total Indian population lives. The remaining 73% of the population lacks access to adequate medical facilities, fueling one of the worst consequences of poverty: poor health and constant illnesses.

To address this gap, The Rural Development Trust (RDT) started its first rural clinic in 1978 to improve health awareness, but that was not enough.

Vicente and Anne Ferrer, the founders of RDT, had a dream: To build medical infrastructure in a rural area to provide high-quality, affordable healthcare and to ensure that rural communities had access to the same quality healthcare available in urban areas.

In December 2000, this dream came true with the opening of the RDT Hospital: a secondary-level hospital in Bathalapalli with 360 beds and over 12 different departments including Internal and Family medicine, General Surgery, Orthopedics and Traumatology, Emergency Care, Gynecology and Obstetrics, Neonatology and Pediatrics. This hospital has played a crucial role in fighting the current COVID-19 outbreak. Here is its story:

2000 – On December 30th, Bathalapalli Hospital was inaugurated by Vicente Ferrer, Anne Ferrer and Dr. Y. Bala Subbaiah. 

2004 – RDT Nursing School was inaugurated to address the lack of qualified medical staff. Since then, around 45 new nurses have graduated every year.

2006 – RDT started the Hospital for Infectious Diseases (HID), also known as Care and Support Center, to treat people living with HIV and Tuberculosis (TB). HID was the first private hospital to have an in-patient facility for HIV and TB and to be authorized to provide free second line antiretroviral treatment (ART) in India. It was recognized by as an ART+ Center by Andhra Pradesh State AIDS Control Society (APSACS) through the National AIDS Control Organization (NACO).

2010 – A new Pediatric Unit was inaugurated, which includes an intensive care unit for children and newborns. 

2014 – A new Orthopedic Traumatology Unit is set up to treat hundreds of patients every day. An orthopedic workshop in the same campus builds mobility devices.

2016 – The Indian Red Cross society recognized the remarkable service of Bathalapalli Hospital Blood blank, established in 2003. That same year, the APSACS recognized RDT for its services in anti-retroviral therapy and prevention of vertical HIV/AIDS transmission. 

2018 – Bathalapalli Pediatrics Unit was recognized by the National Neonatology Forum of India for the quality of its infrastructure. By that time, it had treated 2,768 patients, 40% of which were girls. RDT’s Hospital for Infectious Diseases established a new Mycobacteriology Lab: the second mycobacteriology laboratory in the entire state of Andhra Pradesh.

2019 – Bathalapalli Hospital was accredited as a Dr. YSR Aarogyasri reference center by the government of Andhra Pradesh.

2020 – Bathalapalli Hospital becomes one of the first centers in the Anantapur district to be designated as a COVID-19 Hospital by the District Collector. The  RDT Mycobacteriology Laboratory, used until then to test for drug-resistant tuberculosis (TB), was converted into a COVID-19 testing center.