President Pranab Mukherjee Friday said medical institutions have a responsibility to inculcate a humanistic approach in the minds of the young doctors and health professionals and orient them towards a value-based career in medicine.
"A thought that should seriously engage our attention today is the nature of health system that we ought to have in our country - a commercial, profit-driven system or a system conversant with the socio-economic conditions prevailing in our society," Mukherjee said in his address at the Institute of Neurosciences here.
"I feel medical institutions like yours have a pivotal role to guide our health sector. You have a responsibility to inculcate a humanistic approach in the minds of the young doctors and health professionals and orient them towards a value-based career in medicine," he said.
The president was speaking after inaugurating the 150-bed facility at the institute - a joint collaboration among the West Bengal government, Kolkata Municipal Corporation and Neurosciences Foundation Bengal.
He said while doctors desirous of undergoing higher studies in premier institutions abroad to acquire greater expertise should be encouraged, they should simultaneously remember that the nation has invested in their education.
"Wherever they go, they have to retain the sacred bond with their motherland. They have to be fired by the spirit of patriotism and a sense of social responsibility," he said.
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According to the president, neurological disorders contribute to 6.3 percent of the global burden of disease. "The burden of neurological disorders, which was 92 million disability-adjusted life years in 2005 and estimated at 95 million in 2015, is projected to rise to 103 million by 2030."
A concerned Mukherjee said if comprehensive action is not initiated with due seriousness, the burden of neurological disorders will continue to increase and pose an even greater challenge for public health managers in the future.
Pointing out that many neurological disorders are responsive to inexpensive yet effective treatment, he said such interventions could be managed on a mass scale through the primary healthcare system.
"A robust primary health service aided by secondary and tertiary health sectors, with specialists to diagnose and suggest remedial action, is necessary."
He said the country now had around 1,100 qualified clinical neurologists, of whom 36 percent work in the four metropolitan cities "leaving many areas dependent on single neurologists".
"It is incumbent on our health sector to create adequate capacity in our medical colleges to churn out more specialists and perform cutting-edge research; and expand infrastructure in our hospitals and healthcare centres for investigation and treatment."
The president also urged the medical schools to undertake faculty development, upgrade the syllabi and review the horizon of their research activities.