Union Health Minister Harsh Vardhan on Sunday appealed to all specialised doctors to spend at least a short duration of time in rendering services to patients in villages and hilly areas of the country and “think out of the box” to address the nation’s health issues.
At the launch of the ‘World Simulation Society’ here, Dr. Vardhan urged the doctors to “use and revive the ancient wisdom of India” in solving medical problems.
Distant dream“Even after 67 years of independence, health for every Indian is still a distant dream. But, I believe if we can put our heart and soul into it, we can achieve it...And, therefore I appeal to all the doctors in every specialty to devote some time in villages, where access to specialised medical services is not easy,” he said.
Dr. Vardhan said he was not asking doctors to leave their practice here and go to a village, but to work out an arrangement whereby they could visit a village or a hill town voluntarily or during a vacation, where the boarding and lodging could be arranged locally.
Preventable deathsStating that the government was planning to soon start a series of programmes and workshops, aimed at raising awareness of eradicating “preventable deaths”, he said, “Here, everyone has been talking about treatment and not prevention, and through a series of activities and workshops involving health officials and different departments, we will focuson prevention of diseases, early diagnosis of preventable diseases”. “Efforts are already on to upgrade district hospitals, turn hospitals into super-specialty ones, open AIIMS-like institutions and new AIIMS in various cities ,” he added.
The World Simulation Society aims at raising awareness of creating simulated medical environments through dummy patients, to prepare doctors and others for conditions such as trauma and emergency.
