Adrito Basu

Holy Family Hospital, Mumbai, evolved purely out of the need to serve the complex and growing needs of Mumbai’s suburbs. What started as a private nursing home has since developed into a multi-specialty hospital and medical research centre under the stewardship of two religious congregations. The hospital’s humble beginnings date back to 1942, when Dr Austin Da Silva opened a 10-bed private nursing home called ‘Silverene’ in suburban Bandra. Over the next decade, the healthcare needs of suburban Mumbai grew manifold, and to fill the void for a professional hospital, ‘Silverene’ was handed over to the Medical Mission Sisters in 1953. The congregation expanded the nursing home to accommodate 22 beds and rechristened it as the ‘Holy Family Hospital’. The congregation embraced its new mission with zeal and set a fine tradition in community healthcare with a special emphasis on maternity care. The hospital thus grew from a local, need-based clinic to a modest institution that catered to the general medical needs of Mumbai’s extended suburbs. Over the next two and a half decades, the demographics of Mumbai’s suburbs changed dramatically. They became more complex and as the population grew, so did healthcare requirements.