On 20, 21 and 22 July 2026, Prabh Aasra Multispeciality Charitable Hospital in Kurali opened its doors for a three day free medical camp. The camp ran from 9:00 AM to 3:00 PM each day. Patients walked in without an appointment, without a referral letter and without paying a consultation fee. For many of them, it was the first time a doctor had examined them in years.
This is what a free medical camp looks like when it is run by a hospital that already treats the poor every single day of the year.
What the camp offered
The camp provided free OPD consultations across twelve departments. Patients could see a specialist for general medicine, general surgery, orthopaedics, eye diseases, dermatology, physiotherapy, women’s health and obstetrics, paediatrics, ENT care, dental care, kidney, liver and chest diseases, and heart diseases.
Each day, the first twenty patients also received a 50 percent discount on surgical tests and investigations. That discount matters more than it sounds. A diagnostic test that costs a few thousand rupees is often the exact reason a labourer or a widow delays treatment until the illness becomes an emergency.
The camp was held at Prabh Aasra Hospital, NH-205, Kurali, Mohali, Punjab 140103. Villages across Ropar, Kurali and the wider Mohali belt were within easy reach of the venue.
The eye camp drew some of the longest queues
Eye care was one of the busiest counters at the camp. This is a pattern we see every time. Vision problems are treated as a normal part of getting older in rural Punjab. Farmers, daily wage workers and elderly parents live for years with cataracts, untreated refractive errors and diabetic eye damage because a private eye consultation and a pair of spectacles feel like an unaffordable luxury.
At the free eye camp, patients received a full eye examination from a specialist. Cases that needed surgical follow up were identified and guided into the hospital system rather than being sent home with a prescription and no plan. Catching a cataract early is the difference between a simple procedure and a person losing their independence.
For a farm labourer, losing eyesight is not only a health problem. It ends the ability to earn. One eye camp can protect a family’s entire income.
Why free camps matter in this part of Punjab
Punjab has hospitals. What it does not have, in enough places, is affordable access for people at the bottom of the income ladder. Migrant workers, landless labourers, elderly people living alone and single mothers routinely skip treatment because of the cost of consultation, tests and travel.
Prabh Aasra runs camps like this to remove all three barriers at once. The consultation is free. The tests are discounted or free. The location is close enough that a patient does not lose a day’s wages travelling to Chandigarh.
You can read more about how the trust delivers free medical care for the poor in Punjab throughout the year, not only during camps.
The hospital behind the camp
The camp was not a one day event organised by outsiders. It was run by the Prabh Aasra Multispeciality Charitable Hospital, a permanent facility that serves patients on a charitable basis every day.
The hospital treats residents of the Prabh Aasra shelter homes and members of the surrounding community. It provides OPD services, diagnostics, inpatient care, ambulance support and treatment for patients who would be turned away elsewhere. Because the hospital already exists and already has doctors and equipment in place, camps like this one cost far less to run than a temporary field camp would.
That is the practical value of donor support. Money given to Prabh Aasra builds standing infrastructure, and standing infrastructure makes every future camp cheaper and larger.
Prabh Aasra is more than a hospital
Prabh Aasra has been working in Punjab for over two decades. The trust started by giving shelter to people no one else would take in, and it has grown into one of the largest care campuses in the state.
Today the organisation cares for abandoned elderly people, orphaned children, women rescued from unsafe situations, people with disabilities and patients with mental illness who were living on the streets. It runs a cradle baby centre so that unwanted newborns, especially baby girls, are surrendered safely instead of being abandoned. It runs a rehabilitation centre for people recovering from addiction and mental health crises. It provides homes for elderly people in Punjab who have been left without family support.
The trust also responds when Punjab is hit by disaster. Prabh Aasra teams delivered flood relief during the 2023 and 2025 Punjab floods, supported farmers during the protests of 2020 and 2021, and sent aid to Nepal, Srinagar, Chennai and Muzaffarnagar in earlier years. You can read the full history on the about us page and see the range of work on the services page.
How donations turn into camps like this one
Every free consultation at the July camp was paid for by someone. Doctors need to be present. Medicines need to be stocked. Test equipment needs to be maintained. None of that arrives on its own.
Donor contributions are what allow Prabh Aasra to say yes to a patient who cannot pay. A single gift covers a set of eye examinations. A recurring gift covers a whole department for a month. If you want to understand how modest amounts add up, the trust has explained how small donations create real impact and how to start a monthly donation that funds ongoing care rather than a one time gesture.
Contributions can be made securely through the donation page, which accepts payments from India and from donors in Australia, the United States, Canada, the United Kingdom and New Zealand.
Anyone who wants to volunteer at a future camp, sponsor a specific speciality or bring the camp to their village can reach the team through the contact page, by calling +91 82880-34556 or +91 82880-34555, or by writing to info@prabhaasra.org.
The July camp is over. The patients it identified are still under care, and the next camp is already being planned.