Doctors should focus on how to help the rural poor with the advances in medicine, the Speaker of Legislative Assembly Nadendla Manohar has said.
Addressing delegates of the Association of Otolaryngologists of India (AOI) 8th south zone and 31st state conference in Vijayawada on Friday Mr. Manohar said that the Government was keen on promoting the Private-Public-Partnership (PPP) model, but the burden on the government was growing day by day and doctors should contribute by holding health camps for prevention and early detection.
He said that minimum invasive surgery should be preferred because the number of days for recovery and hospitalisation were less.
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Responding to statistics given about the increasing number of cancer cases caused by tobacco the Speaker said that Andhra Pradesh Government was one of the first governments to ban several tobacco products. He said a lot of poor were being benefited by cochlear implantation that was covered under Arogyasri scheme.
Large numbers of people are migrating to urban centres and this would only increase the burden on the Government, he observed. While it was the responsibility of the Government to provide a pollution free environment to the people particularly the poor, it was becoming an unbearable burden.
He asked the ENT specialists to focus on ways to help the poor. Dr. N.T.R. University of Health Sciences Vice-Chancellor I.V. Rao said that ENT surgery being done with the aid of computers was becoming very precise with minimum damage to neighbouring tissues. He said that the Health University will introduce ten two-year post-doctoral fellowship courses from January 1, 2013.
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The AOI conference organising chairman P.S.N. Murthy welcomed the gathering. Ear, nose, throat and head and neck cancers constitute 34 per cent of the total cancers, said AOI South Zone president S.K.E. Appa Rao.
“People are dying of oral cancer because of ignorance. There were seven lakh cases of cancer every year and three lakh cases were tobacco related mostly Chutta Cancer (where the country cigar is smoked with the lit end inside the mouth). Every day 2,000 deaths were also tobacco related, Dr. Appa Rao said.
Organising secretary K. Sivaramakrishna proposed a vote of thanks.
Assumes office
ENT surgeon of Melody Voice Clinic fame V. Phaniendra Kumar took charge as president of the Association of Otolaryngologists of India, AP Chapter, at the 31 State conference here on Friday.