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Dr T R Suresh - Man with a mission
Dr Suresh hails from Thanjavur. He had his education, school, medical and specialisation, there. He was fortunate to gain admission for psychiatric training at Thanjavur where he had less focus on theory and more on getting patients better. He acquired his MD in psychiatry at Madras Medical College, Madras. His objective was all the time to become a psychiatrist and he never had any other field in mind.
His father T N Ramachandran of Thanjavur is a noted scholar, speaker and translator of Subramania Bharati and Saiva Siddhantam. The literary background and a wide-ranging interest in non-medical books have been found to be of great help to Dr Suresh in his approach to patients and their management. He has found the truth of William Osler's saying, "'He is not a good doctor who only reads medical books."
He was staff psychiatrist and tutor in psychiatry at Sri Ramachandra Medical College, Chennai, for about eight years. He became a full-time private practitioner in 1994.
He has his consultations at Vijaya Hospital and Sooriya Hospital, both in Chennai. He also visits other hospitals like the Madras Medical Mission, on call. At Vijaya Hospital, he is available from 3 to 5 p.m. His hours at Sooriya Hospital are 10.30 a.m. to 1 p.m.
Treatment procedures are taken up from 10.30 a.m. to 12 noon, followed by consultations. He is also available at Sooriya Hospital between 6 p.m. and 7 p.m. on Tuesday and Saturday. Appointment for consultations is desirable though he is not too rigid on this.
Sundays are holidays except for emergencies requiring admission to hospital. For emergencies you may also contact him directly (Residence phone: 2485 0634/2965) or through hospital services any time.
Listening to the patient and the family and looking at the problem from their point of view form the basic approach of his assessment. He holds it as a dictum that every patient has to be taken as a bona fide one and not fobbed off with the bland statement, "You're normal; there's nothing wrong with you''.
He believes that treatment has to be comprehensive and rounded and be practicable and possible for the patient and care-givers. He holds that medicine, like diplomacy, is "the art of the possible, often needing continuous engagement and achieving incremental improvements"'.
His wife Dr T Prabalkumari is also a trained psychiatrist and practices along with him.
Counselling the right person at the right time
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