Punjab Health and Family Welfare Minister Surjit Kumar Jayani met Union Health Minister Harsh Vardhan at New Delhi on Saturday evening and discussed many key issues related to strengthening of health services in Punjab.
Jayani said the Union Minister has strongly recommended taking concrete measures to strengthen free and timely health services, especially for the poor at their doorstep.
The Minister said Dr Vardhan agreed on the proposal put forwarded by him for strengthening health services in Punjab specially Ayurveda and Homeopathy Medical Services in the State.
He said that the Union Health Minister has also assured full support for strengthening the whole health infrastructure to provide better healthcare facilities to the people in Punjab.
The Minister said that Dr Harsh Vardhan has suggested for setting up super-specialty hospitals modelled on All India Institute of Medical Sciences (AIIMS) in the states. He added that it would be a Government-run free facility and no private company would make profits from such projects.
Jayani said that Dr Vardhan has requested the Chief Ministers to avail this opportunity. He added that all are of the view that the common experience is that most doctors are unwilling to serve in rural areas. On the other hand doctors from small towns and villages are forced to find employment in big cities where they take years to establish themselves. But once super-speciality, AIIMS-like Government hospitals come up in district towns, the needs of both the population and doctors could be served.
The Minister said that Dr Harsh Vardhan has said he would consult the state Health Ministers on ways to collect local synergies about setting up of AIIMS in their States to make this model a success.