SME Times News Bureau | 25 Apr, 2019
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.