Progress in health sector is key to India’s future,says Pranab

A commemorative postal stamp was released by the President as part of the Golden Jubilee Celebrations of the institute.

Addressing the audience at the PGIMER that included doctors,faculty members,students and the officials of the UT Administration,Punjab,Haryana,the president said,“We need to take health services closer to the homes of the families-even a primary health centre is too far by today’s standard and need. We need out-of-the-box managerial and administrative reforms in the health departments at the state and central level”.

He said that at the national level,according to a WHO study,the estimated economic loss for India due to deaths caused by all the diseases in 2005 was 1.3% of its GDP. With an increase in the number of non-communicable diseases,this loss is apprehended to increase to 5% of GDP by 2015 if it is not checked,he said.

While praising the faculty staff and students of PGI who have worked selflessly to bring the institute to its present position of eminence he said,“The PGI must rise to be one of the top medical universities in the world within a specific period of time. We must develop world-class centres of excellence focused not only on traditional specialties but also on cross-cutting themes such as infectious diseases,vaccine development and regenerative sciences”.

He called upon the faculty and scholars of PGI to step forward and become leaders in the world of medicine. The President awarded gold medals to four best students of the year from different disciplines.

Ghulam Nabi Azad,Union Minister of Health and Family Welfare and President of PGIMER handed over the degrees to the students. He said,“A series of reforms in medical education have been undertaken with a view to overcome the acute shortage of human resources in health at various levels”. He also mentioned the recent environmental clearance accorded to PGIMER for the proposed 250 bed hospital which will add 90 private rooms and 10 Operation Theatres and will house,among other facilities.

Prof Yogesh Chawla,Director,PGIMER welcomed the chief guest,along with other distinguished guests Shivraj V Patil,governor of Punjab and Administrator,Chandigarh,Jagannath Pahadia,governor of Haryana,B S Hooda,chief minister of Haryana and Dr Killi Kuruparani,Union Minister of State for Communications and Information Technology.

Prof Amod Gupta,Dean PGI facilitated the process of giving degrees to the students and also delivered the vote of thanks.

Sidelights

The PGIMER Director had nothing new to mention in his speech and he repeated the same projects that he had mentioned on past occasions including the proposal to start Multi Organ Transplantation – lungs,heart,pancreas and intestine in addition to the existing liver and kidney transplants; a Neurosciences Centre and Mother-Child Care Centre,Robotic surgery etc.

Union Health minister Ghulam Nabi Azad had to cut down most of his speech as the convocation got delayed by a few minutes. Every minute was being counted for as per the programme of the President.

The President and other dignitaries entered the Bhargava Auditorium when the procession of the faculty members were entering the hall. Suddenly without making any announcement,the national anthem started,much to everyone’s surprise.

The Union Minister of Telecommunication Kapil Sibal could not make it to the event and instead,the Union Minister of State for Telecommunications Dr Killi Kuruparani was present instead.