The annual PG cultural function Nirvan-2013of the Junior Doctors’ (PG students) Association of the MKCG Medical College was held in the college auditorium here on Wednesday which was presided over by college Principal and Dean Prof AK Dandapat. Association secretary Dr Srikanta Behera welcomed the guests while president Dr Goutam Mishra outlined the various activities of the year under report.
Addressing the gathering, the former Assembly Deputy Speaker Rama Chandra Panda said healthcare is an important domain of people’s living and the Directive Principles of the Indian Constitution mandates the States to take care of health of workers, children, men and women as a primary duty of the State.
With these objectives in mind, he said, Government medical colleges have been established at Cuttack, Brahmapur and Burla to cater to the health needs of the people of the respective regions which have now unfortunately been crippled due to collapse of infrastructure in terms of faculty, manpower, ultramodern equipment and research. The Sambalpur and Brahmapur medical colleges in particular are systematically weakened. There are no facilities like trauma care, ICUs, gamma machine and MRI scanning forcing the patients to go outside the State. In both the colleges, there are about 200 posts of faculty (Professors, Associate Professors and Assistant Professors) lying vacant, he pointed out.
Panda demanded autonomous status to the MKCG Medical College and declaration of this institution as a medical university to facilitate R&D activities and improve the service potentials, more particularly in different super-specialty areas.
Senior journalist Dillip Satapathy urged the Government to meet the infrastructural deficiencies of the Government medical colleges on which 80 per cent of people depend.
He said the State has miserably failed to meet the NRHM (National Rural Health Mission) target in providing doctors at the ratio of one per 7,000 people. Currently, there is one doctor for a population of 12,000. Former ABVP zonal secretary Bishnu Das appealed to doctors to uphold the ethical values of their noble profession. He described medical education as most difficult compared to other disciplines.
He urged doctors to do justice to patients, especially poor section of the society, unlike on the case of Podana Majhi of lanjigarh who preferred to suffer rather than to go to a doctor. The function ended following cultural shows.