Innovation for low cost, effective and affordable healthcare is the need of the day: J P Nadda
The Honble President of India, Shri Ram Nath Kovind delivering the Convocation Address at the 45th Convocation of the All India Institute of Medical Sciences (AIIMS), at New Delhi today said, the name "AIIMS" has become a byword for quality, commitment and rich experience. The faculty and doctors, as well as the students, are the pride of our medical fraternity and our nation." The Honble President further stated that patients and their families have great trust in the doctors. It is upon you to ensure that the trust is given due respect and that you treat them with care and compassion," the Honble President added. Shri J P Nadda, Union Minister of Health and Family Welfare, and President of AIIMS, New Delhi was also present at the occasion, and awarded degrees to 572 graduating students.
Appreciating the efforts of the Health Ministry, the Honble President said that by launching programmes like Mission Indradhanush, the Health Ministry is urgently trying to fill the immunisation gap and protecting all children from killer diseases. As a word of caution, the Honble President stated that in our country, both obesity and malnutrition are substantial public health issues. And in our country, we have a very large child population as well as one of the worlds largest populations of senior people. Both these groups pose very different but very real challenges to our healthcare system and our doctors and nurses", he stated.
The Union Health Minister Shri J P Nadda congratulated all the students and said innovation for low cost effective and affordable healthcare is the need of the day. To take up all these challenge AIIMS is strengthening and expanding its facilities and Government of India is fully supporting this. He further said that the brand of AIIMS is recognized and respected the world over and every student educated at AIIMS has the potential to become a leader in their chosen area. A considerable number of AIIMS alumni have already demonstrated leadership in making our world a better place, he stated.
Speaking at the function, Shri Nadda said that in order to protect each and every child in the country from vaccine preventable diseases, the government has launched Mission Indradhanush special immunization drives in 2014, to fully immunize all children and pregnant women across the country. So far, more than 3.2 crore beneficiaries have been immunized. From 1% annual increase in full immunization, Mission Indradhanush has resulted in 6.7% of annual expansion. Recently released SRS data has indicated a steep decline in Under 5 Mortality Rate (U5MR) from 49 in 2013 to 39 in 2016," Shri Nadda added.
Shri Nadda said that its a great challenge to produce high quality healthcare providers at all levels. We need the teachers and academicians to develop such human resources in health. In this regard, the country has a lot of expectation from all of you. To address these challenges we have undertaken reforms like setting up of more medical and nursing schools, introduction of National Eligibility cum Entrance Test (NEET) to get rid of multiple entrance exam and ensure greater transparency & better standard, reforms in MCI and DNB regulations have helped in taking the total number of PG & DNB seats to more than 37,000, to name a few", the Health Minister stated.
Shri J P Nadda also presented lifetime achievement awards to eminent professionals in the field of medical science, and medals and prizes to meritorious students. The recipients of lifetime achievement award for 45th Annual Convocation are Dr. Purushottam Upadhyaya, Prof. Lalit Mohan Nath, Prof. Usha Nayar, Dr. Meharban Singh, Prof. Indira Nath and Prof. M C Maheshwari.
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