Sathya Sai Baba addresing delegates, International Medical Conference, 2005

The Sathya Sai system of healthcare is a unique healthcare system that provides completely free healthcare to every patient without the use of any public funds, solicitation or marketing. It has been successfully doing this since 1956. The monetary value of work done by the SSIO alone in the last 10 years has been estimated to amount to over half a Billion U.S. Dollars. The type of healthcare delivered spans the whole gamut from primary care to tertiary care using the latest technologies and medical expertise. Its service extends all over the globe providing healthcare in every continent except Antarctica. For this reason, it is referred to as Sathya Sai Ideal Healthcare. How is this achieved? The next section describes the principles that drive the healthcare system.

Principles of Sathya Sai Ideal Healthcare

Sathya Sai Baba had been working incessantly for more than half a century to bring about the joyous experience of compassion and love to mankind all over the world through a benevolent healthcare system. The global proportion to which this has grown is truly a blessing for the entire world. In 1956, His mother Easwaramma requested Him to construct a hospital for the poor. While there are many hospitals, Sathya Sai Baba believed that free healthcare, like free education and drinking water, is an inalienable right of every individual, irrespective of race, religion, creed or economic status. With these noble ideals, the first Sathya Sai Hospital was established in Puttaparthi, India in 1956. 

During the last 60 years this has blossomed into a vast global system delivering free healthcare in many countries using the principles taught by Sathya Sai Baba. These principles  provide a framework for the delivery of ideal healthcare.  In the field of medicine, He has fundamentally redefined healthcare and has made the clarion call for all medical professionals to deliver ideal healthcare. Healthcare implemented by Sathya Sai Baba is guided by the following six principles which are assiduously followed in every healthcare institution and every healthcare activity. The principles below have been emphasized by Sathya Sai Baba in His discourses:

  1. State-of-the-art healthcare: State-of-the-art healthcare is made available to all people. The importance of this principle is stated in this Discourse.
  2. Free healthcare: Economic considerations do not prevent anyone from receiving the highest benefits of healthcare. The importance of this principle is stated in this Discourse.
  3. Compassionate healthcare: Healthcare is delivered with love and compassion. The importance of this principle is stated in this Discourse.
  4. Comprehensive healthcare: Healthcare includes treatment of the body, mind, and spirit. The importance of this principle is stated in this Discourse.
  5. Preventive healthcare: Prevention should be the primary focus. The importance of this principle is stated in this Discourse.
  6. Timely delivery of healthcare: Healthcare is delivered as soon as a need is identified without delay. The importance of this principle is stated in this Discourse.

Sathya Sai Hospitals

Sathya Sai Superspecialty Hospital in Puttaparthi

Details on the Sathya Sai hospitals in India are available on their website.

Global Health Mission

The SSIO has established a vast network of excellent, compassionate and free healthcare delivery in over 30 countries around the globe. This service is rendered with humility, without publicity and without solicitation of funds. 

Delivery of Sathya Sai Ideal Healthcare takes place through the following activities. Every activity adheres to the six principles stated above:

  1. Medical relief to victims of natural disasters
  2. Medical, veterinarian and dental camps
  3. Permanent medical and dental clinics
  4. Preventive healthcare and public health
  5. Rehabilitation programmes
  6. Mobile medical clinics
  7. Visiting medical and dental doctors for Sathya Sai hospitals in India
  8. Teaching and training of doctors-in-training and nurses in Sathya Sai hospitals in India
  9. Delivery of medical supplies and equipment to Sathya Sai hospitals in India as well as in areas devastated by natural disasters.

Medical Relief to Victims of Natural Disasters

Medical care in The Philippines with makeshift clinic after hurricane Haiyan

There are three aspects of the service rendered by the SSIO that stand out: First, there is no overhead for services provided and volunteers use their own resources. Second, services are rendered with love and compassion. Third, SSIO volunteers are often the first to arrive and the last ones to leave a disaster site.

The SSIO has, in the recent past, engaged in humanitarian relief services in Nepal, Philippines, Croatia, Serbia, Bosnia/Herzegovina, Indonesia, Italy, Sri Lanka, Mexico, Peru, U.S.A. and Haiti – to name a few. For its timely and exemplary services, the SSIO has been honoured with awards and recognition by authorities in many countries, although recognition is never the prime objective of the organization or the volunteers. 

Proclamation of Sathya Sai Baba Day, City of St. Louis, U.S.A.

Medical, Veterinarian, Dental Camps and Permanent Medical Clinics

Medical camp in Florida

Preventive Healthcare and Public Health

Screening and education for disease prevention

Rehabilitation Programmes

Even after treatment, people suffer from the disabling sequelae of illnesses that can interfere with daily life. It is during this difficult phase of their life that they require specialised care that addresses their physical, psychological, and social well-being. Several rehabilitation programmes instituted in the world by the SSIO enables patients to function as self-reliant members of their communities.

Delivering Healthcare in Remote Villages

Mobile clinic visiting villages in Indonesia

Visiting Medical and Dental doctors

A doctor among many who make regular vists to hospitals in India

Teaching and training of doctors-in-training and nurses

Resident doctors learning through video teleconferencing

SSIO healthcare professionals are actively engaged in teaching and training of doctors-in-training as well as nurses at the Sathya Sai Hospitals in India. Just as in the delivery of healthcare, the teaching programme delivers teaching and training using the six principles and especially enhances the program with a combination of Telemedicine and on-site teaching.

Please see this opening talk by Dr. Narendranath Reddy at the International Medical Conference on Sathya Sai Ideal Healthcare in Anaheim, California, 2009. You can view a commemorative brochure for the Medical Conference held in 2005.

Delivery of Medical Equipment and Supplies

The SSIO has established the Sathya Sai International Centre for Medical Services which has delivered millions of U.S. Dollars worth of medical supplies and equipment to the Sathya Sai hospitals. In addition this Centre also delivered medical supplies to aid relief work in Haiti, the Philippines and Nepal.

Details on these activities summarized in the most recent Annual Report of the SSIO.

Today, Sathya Sai Ideal Healthcare is active worldwide with no publicity or fundraising efforts. The timing is now perfect for a rebirth of humane medicine.  Sathya Sai Baba’s message to provide excellent and free healthcare services with selfless love, compassion and empathy to everyone is being adopted by thousands of healthcare professionals throughout the world. This model of Sathya Sai Ideal Healthcare has laid the foundation for ideal healthcare worldwide. The healthcare professionals and volunteers of the SSIO work tirelessly inspired by the vision, words and works of Sathya Sai Baba. They realize that “service to man is service to God.”