Bhatagar addresses 3-day surgical conference at GMC Sgr
'Govt. working systematically to provide timely, affordable healthcare to all'
SRINAGAR: The advisor to JK Lieutenant Governor (LG) Rajeev Rai Bhatnagar on Friday said that the J&K government was working systematically to fulfill its primary objective of providing suitable, affordable and timely medical care to all including economically challenged people.
The advisor said this while addressing the gathering at a three day surgical conference of J&K Chapter of Association of Surgeons of India (JAKASI) organised by the Post Graduate Department of Surgery, GMC here.
Advisor Bhatnagar mentioned that with the greater strides made in the upgradation of medical infrastructure, J&K was able to tackle the covid-19 pandemic successfully.
He said that with the availability of quality medical fraternity coupled with state of the art infrastructure, the UT effectively provided better health care facilities to its citizens during those tough times.
He further said that it was expected that patient care would reach greater quality and affordability besides resulting in timely services to people with the establishment of two AIIMS, seven new medical colleges, two cancer institutes and overall augmentation of medical facilities across the length and breadth of J&K.
The advisor observed that the waiting period for patients having need of surgeries or high-end medical tests should be minimal.
He maintained that delays in a way amounts to denial of services to the poor.
The Advisor also stated that J&K has a huge potential of becoming the medical tourism destination in the country.
He added that the government has roped in many of the big names in the private sector to invest here in the medical sector. He said that the land earmarked for two medi-cities in the twin cities is going to be a right step in this direction.
Advisor Bhatnagar said that efforts were made towards decentralization of health services in the J&K UT.
He said that a proper referral policy has worked better towards providing health services to people nearer to their homes.
He reiterated that the Universal health coverage of all the citizens has been instrumental in saving the lives of many people and lessening the extra burden on their meagre resources.
Speaking on the significance of this workshop, advisor applauded the organizers for conducting such a workshop here.
He said that such events provide unique opportunities to youngsters to learn thereby increasing their professional competence.
He declared that the shortage of critical care specialists and technicians at all levels would also be addressed once all of our facilities get completed here.
In her address, Principal GMC Dr. Samia Rashid articulated that such workshops are the platforms to discuss and debate about the modern trends and challenges in medical sciences.
She said that the past situation in the valley has been a difficult phase to which this medical college dealt in a very astute manner.
President ASI Professor G. Siddesh in said that the organization gave an opportunity to all the training surgeons to learn from its online resource base during Covid times when elective surgeries were not performed in hospitals. He urged all of them to continue reaping benefits of it free of charge.
Prof Siddesh also said that the Association of Surgeons of India is going to be the largest medical professional organization in the world with 30000 active members and 6000 associates. He said the association would surpass the American Medical Association in membership.
KV News
