Nagaland: ZHRC marks 20 years of service

Zion Hospital and Research Centre (ZHRC), under the aegis of Bethel Medical Research Society, marked its 20th anniversary with a thanksgiving service at the hospital’s conference hall here on Wednesday. The programme was chaired by Dr. Rendemo Shitiri.
Speaking on the occasion, managing director Dr. Mhabemo Ovung highlighted the hospital’s two-decade journey. He informed that Zion Hospital and Research Centre was established in 2006 by the Bethel Medical Research Society, an NGO registered in 1999 (Regd. No. H/RS-186 dated 05/03/1999). The hospital was inaugurated on February 11, 2006 by then chief minister of Nagaland, Neiphiu Rio, in the presence of former Rajya Sabha MP T.R. Zeliang and former health minister Dr. T.M. Lotha.
Dr. Ovung said the hospital began as the first private multi-specialty hospital in Nagaland with super-specialty departments such as paediatric surgery, gastroenterology and cardiology. He noted that the institution has been manned by qualified doctors trained in premier institutes including AIIMS, New Delhi and PGIMER, Chandigarh. The hospital’s vision, he said, was to provide state-of-the-art healthcare to patients at affordable costs so that people need not travel outside the state for treatment.
The hospital currently caters to patients from Nagaland and neighbouring areas of Assam, offering services in anaesthesiology and critical care, cardiology, dermatology, dentistry, general medicine and surgery, nephrology, obstetrics and gynaecology, orthopaedics, paediatrics and neonatology, paediatric surgery and dentistry, physiotherapy, palliative care, pathology, radiodiagnosis and urology.
Chairman of the board of directors, Bethel Medical Research Society, Dr. Maongwati Ao, further called for renewed commitment to compassionate and people-centred healthcare as Zion Hospital and Research Centre (ZHRC) marked its 20th anniversary.
Speaking at the thanksgiving programme, Dr. Ao expressed gratitude to the founders, doctors, nurses and staff—past and present—for their contributions to the institution’s growth over the past two decades. He said the anniversary was both a moment of celebration and reflection on the hospital’s journey since its establishment.
He also thanked all those associated with the hospital on behalf of the board of directors and prayed for continued guidance and progress in the years ahead.
He noted that the hospital was founded with a vision to provide healthcare with excellence, skill and compassion, and urged the staff to recommit themselves to this mission.
Dr. Ao stressed that empathy and compassion must remain central to medical service, adding that healthcare workers not only treat illnesses but also touch the lives and hearts of patients through compassionate care. He encouraged the hospital community to continue serving with dedication and to uphold its motto of “Healthcare with Compassion.”
Director of Intercultural Learning and Collaboration for BMS World Mission, Kethoser Aniu Kevichusa, called for strengthening compassion and people-centred service in healthcare.
Congratulating the hospital on reaching the milestone, Kevichusa said anniversaries were moments to pause, reflect and reconnect with an institution’s purpose. He urged the staff to reflect on the hospital’s motto, “Healthcare with Compassion,” and emphasised that the core of medical service should be care for people rather than merely curing disease.
Drawing on historical and philosophical perspectives, he noted that hospitals should be places of hospitality and care where patients are treated as persons with dignity. He said while medical treatment aims to cure, the essence of healthcare lies in caring for patients with empathy and compassion.
Kevichusa encouraged the hospital to continue upholding its vision as a people-oriented medical care institution and to remain committed to serving the community with dedication and compassion in the years ahead.
The programme concluded with prayers for the continued growth of the institution and its service to the people followed by lunch.