Vice President M. Venkaiah Naidu Thursday asked young doctors and people entering into medical profession to be compassionate towards the downtrodden sections and treat them with empathy and understanding.

He asked them to view the profession as a mission to serve the people and not as a commercial vocation.

Addressing the 9th Convocation of the KLE Deemed University, in Belagavi, Karnataka, the Vice President impressed upon the young graduates on the need to make high-quality medical care accessible to the last poor man in the queue.

Expressing concern over the rising costs of healthcare, Shri Naidu said that a large section of the population was unable to get the latest diagnostic and therapeutic tools and treat some of the hitherto incurable diseases like cancer and heart-diseases.

Opining that ensuring healthcare services were not only affordable but also accessible to the common man, the Vice President urged upon the private sector to join hands with the government in providing affordable healthcare through public-private partnership in order to ensure modern and state-of-the-art healthcare facilities in rural areas.

'While the governments are creating facilities right up to primary health centers, the private sector too should chip in to provide advanced diagnostic and treatment facilities in rural areas, he added.

Observing that non-communicable diseases were on rising in India due to a sedentary lifestyle, Shri Naidu said that poor dietary habits, consumption of alcohol and tobacco, among others, were leading rise in non-communicable diseases like obesity, hypertension, heart-diseases, diabetes and stroke.

To arrest this alarming trend, he wanted the medical fraternity to create adequate awareness among the people, particularly the youth on the hazards posed by modern-day lifestyle and unhealthy dietary habits.

Opining that there was a gradual erosion of human touch or human element in doctor-patient relationship, the Vice President said that doctors were not communicating adequately with the patients and rather performing their duty in a mechanical fashion.

He wanted them to establish an effective communication with patients.

Saying that providing education to the masses would be the best way to empower them, the Vice President called up on institutions such as the KLE Society to complement efforts of government by providing affordable quality education to people living in rural areas.

Shri Naidu suggested to include subjects like bio-ethics, humanities and communication skills in the medical curriculum.

He urged academic institutions also to ensure that youngsters develop adequate skills and competencies along with preventive health-care aspects particularly yoga, diet and exercises as a part of the curriculum.