Union Minister JP Nadda on Tuesday said the country’s healthcare sector has taken a monumental leap under the Narendra Modi government with the number of AIIMS rising to 23 and medical colleges being set up in rural areas.
Addressing the 5th convocation ceremony of the All India Institute of Medical Sciences (AIIMS), Rishikesh, the health minister said AIIMS that have come up in different parts of the country are all equipped with state-of-the-art facilities.
“For half a century, the AIIMS in Delhi was the only institute of its kind in the country.
“After Atal Bihari Vajpayee became the Prime Minister, six more were set up of which AIIMS-Rishikesh is one.
“But in the last 10 years of Narendra Modi’s prime ministership, 16 more AIIMS have been added, taking the total number to 23,” Nadda, the Union Minister of Health and Family Welfare, said.
He praised the premier institute in Rishikesh for the “great work” it was doing in the field of telemedicine promotion alongside AIIMS, Delhi and PGI, Chandigarh by providing quality healthcare services to remote and under-served areas.
The air ambulance service launched by Prime Minister Modi at AIIMS-Rishikesh in October last year has in a short span of time saved the lives of 309 critical patients by airlifting them from their homes in difficult terrain to the premier health facility, Nadda said.
The number of medical colleges in the country has risen from 387 to 780 over the last 10 years which indicates that medical colleges are being opened in rural areas as well. “Medical colleges have been opened in non-descript remote places where one could not imagine them at one time,” he said.
He attributed the reformative changes to the approach of today’s policymakers.
“Today, you have world-class facilities right here. You do not need to go anywhere else,” he said.
He spoke at length about how the shift in focus from curative health to preventive and promotive health in the new health policy was proving beneficial to the country. Nadda said education is a birthright but not professional education which he described as a privilege given by society.
“On each student in a professional course, the government is spending `35 lakh per annum. So, your responsibility towards the society is immense,” he told the gathering.
He said students who were conferred with their degrees on Tuesday should look upon the day as just the beginning of a long journey and use the skills learnt at the institute to the service of the society.
