Quacks have been exploiting the ego clash between various medical systems in recognising each other, Governor P. Sathasivam has said.
He was speaking after distributing degrees at the 11th convocation of the Kerala University of Health Sciences (KUHS) here on Friday.
“Qualified doctors should be encouraged to study and research on multi-disciplinary treatment system. Society will benefit from such researches. The KUHS should lead the way for such research schools,” the Governor said.
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There had been a tendency of questioning doctors based on information available on the internet. The doctors should come up against spreading of false and half-cooked health information. For a doctor, the patient was not just a consumer. He recalled an incident while he was the Chief Justice of India when an orthopaedic surgeon approached the court with a PIL in connection with road accidents. “That PIL led to the SC direction that it is the duty of the citizen who witnesses an accident to take the accident victim to the hospital. Saving the life of a patient was the basic duty of the doctor.”
Medical ethics
Ethics in medical science had become a thing of debate. Many times advancements in medical science posed challenges to ethics. Doctors should be doubly careful in handling legal and ethical issues.
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The State’s medical system had showed its efficiency in handing emergency situations like the Nipah virus attack. The role of Health Minister K.K. Shylaja was admirable in coordinating the whole efforts, he said.
Health Minister K.K. Shylaja, who is also the Pro-chancellor of the University, delivered keynote address.
“The country has reduced the fund allocation to the health sector from 2% of GDP to 1%. Only if it is increased to 5 or 6% we can make the health sector patient-friendly,” she said.
In all, 5,200 new posts had been created in the health sector in the past three years. A total of 200 more government hospitals would be made family health centres soon. Service was love. Service was devotion. Service was humanity, she reminded the students.
In all, 5,403 students received medical degrees at the function. This included graduates in medicine, dental, ayurveda, homoeopathy, Sidha, nursing, pharmacy and allied health sciences. Certificates were distributed to postgraduate, post diploma and medical super specialty holders.