Union Health Minister Harsh Vardhan favours preventive medicine
Union Health Minister Harsh Vardhan has advocated a universal health assurance plan to ensure that each individual gets health care.
This includes a package of preventive medicine, diagnostics and a few essential medicines. He also stressed on preventive healthcare, which can prevent infant and maternal mortality.
The Minister was in the city to inaugurate the Centre for Addiction Medicine Complex at the National Institute of Mental Health and Neurosciences (NIMHANS) on Saturday.
Dr. Harsh Vardhan said schools should set aside one hour to create awareness about the ill-effects of consumption of alcohol and cigarettes, and general health awareness. He said the experts in NIMHANS should not restrict their expertise to the institute and the State but help in formulating a national policy.
Minister for Health U.T. Khader said counselling is necessary even for those accused of crime, as people going in as prisoners are those with a “Bachelor of crime who come out holding a Ph.D”.
He said the State government is planning more NIMHANS-like centres in Karnataka. He suggested that primary health centres, district hospitals and community health centres allocate a slot every Tuesday to patients with mental illness.
In case of a shortage of psychiatrists, private hospitals can chip in, he said, adding that government quota seats in Master’s in Psychiatry should be increased.
Explaining about the newly inaugurated de-addiction centre, P. Satishchandra, Director and Vice-Chancellor, NIMHANS, said the institute had acquired a four-storey building at Rs. 5.67 crore and has a women’s treatment wing, a drug toxicology lab and a virtual knowledge centre. He also said land had been acquired for another campus in the northern parts of the city to establish a state-of-the-art poly trauma centre. Dr. Harsh Vardhan also visited Jayadeva Institute of Cardio Vascular Sciences (JICVS) and Jayanagar General Hospital to examine the facilities.
(The Hindu)
