PM addresses doctors on National Doctors’ Day
Varanasi: The doctors of Banaras Hindu University along with the vice chancellor Prof. VK Shukla attended the virtual address of the Prime Minister Narendra Modi at an event organised by the Indian Medical Association on the occasion of National Doctors’ Day on Thursday.
The PM greeted the doctor community, and said this day, celebrated in the memory of Doctor BC Roy, is the symbol of the highest ideals of medical fraternity. He thanked the doctors for their services during the difficult times in last one and half years of the pandemic.
Acknowledging the doctor’s contribution, the PM recalled their heroic efforts during the pandemic and paid homage to those who laid down their lives in the service of humanity. “Our scientists and doctors have found solutions for all the challenges thrown by Corona. Our doctors are facing this new and fast mutating virus on the basis of their experience and expertise. Despite the limitations of long-neglected medical infrastructure and pressure of population, India’s per lakh population rate of infection and death rate is still manageable compared to even developed countries. Loss of lives is always painful but many lives have been saved too. Credit goes to hard-working doctors, healthcare workers, frontline workers for saving many lives”, said the PM.
Underlining the focus of the government on strengthening healthcare, he said that during the ‘first wave’ about 15 thousand crores were allocated for healthcare and this year, health sector budget has been doubled to more than 2 lakh crore rupees. Rs 50 thousand crore have been allocated for credit guarantee scheme to develop health infrastructure in the under-served area. New AIIMS, medical colleges are being established. Work has been initiated on 15 AIIMS as opposed to total six AIIMS that existed in 2014. Number of Medical colleges have increased one and half times. Under graduate medical seats have increased one and half times and PG seats have grown by 80 per cent, informed the PM.
He reiterated the Government’s commitment for the safety of doctors. He mentioned stringent laws that have been brought in for preventing violence against doctors. Along with this, a free insurance cover scheme has been brought for the Covid warriors.
The PM called upon the doctors to continue to inspire the people to get vaccinated and adopt Covid appropriate behavior. He also commended medical fraternity for spreading awareness about Yoga. Work for propagating Yoga, that should have been done in the last century after Independence, is being done now, said the PM and praised the doctors for giving their time to the evidence-based studies on the benefits of yoga for dealing with post-Covid complications. He asked if IMA can take up the evidence-based studies on yoga in a mission mode. He also suggested that studies on yoga could be published in international journals.
The PM stressed the importance of documentation of experiences by doctors. Along with the experiences, symptoms of the patients and treatment plan needs to be documented in great details. This can be taken up as a research study where effects of various medicines and treatments are noted. He said that sheer number of patients served by the doctors put them ahead of the world. Now is the time when the world takes cognizance and take benefit from these scientific studies. Covid pandemic can be a good starting point for this. The PM wondered if we could study more deeply how vaccines are helping us, how early diagnosis helps. There is no documentation available about the last century’s pandemic but now we have technology and our documentation about how we faced Covid will help the humanity.
