Vijayawada, Nov 03 : The State government will focus on strengthening the Primary Health Centres, secondary and tertiary care units and concentrate on providing better facilities for government doctors, Minister for Health D.L. Ravindra Reddy has said. “Permission will not be given for a deemed medical university, a decision to that effect has been taken,” the Minister said.
Inaugurating a medical education summit being organised as part of the silver jubilee celebrations of Dr. N.T.R. University of Health Sciences here on Wednesday, the Minister said sweeping changes were required in the health delivery system in the State. There was a marked reduction in the government spending in the health sector and as a result private hospitals mushroomed all over the State. Competing with each other they were exploiting patients, he said.
Doctors were thinking on commercial lines forgetting their responsibilities towards public. The University of Health Sciences had a crucial role to play in producing the right kind of doctors, the Minister said. He asked the university authorities to focus on providing good medical education that produces doctors who would be useful in providing inexpensive and high quality medicare to the rural masses.
Finding fault with the undue attention being given by the media to ‘108′, ‘104′ and Arogyasri, he said there was a need to improve infrastructure in government-run institutions. Every doctor should strive to be within the reach of the poor. Lauding former Chief Minister N.T. Rama Rao for establishing the Health University, he said the State government would support and protect it. He said attempts were made to undermine the Health University by private medical colleges, but the government did not permit it.
Special invitee and Rajasthan University of Health Sciences Vice-Chancellor Panwar Raja said acute paucity of faculty in government medical colleges could be reduced by increasing the retirement age to 70. Medical Council of India (MCI) had increased the retirement age of faculty in teaching institutes to 70 and so the best teachers from government institutions were going to private medical colleges. The Minister responding to this said there were some legal hurdles to it.
Source : The Hindu