Maintaining that public health was a government priority, Chief Minister Yogi Adityanath, on Saturday, said that Uttar Pradesh had the best healthcare infrastructure and urged doctors to conduct new research to find out causes of diseases.
Addressing the golden jubilee celebrations of Baba Raghav Das (BRD) Medical College in Gorakhpur, the chief minister said, “It is not only important to treat a disease, we also have to figure out the core causes of the disease so that it can be stopped from spreading. In this context, it is the responsibility of doctors and medical teachers to promote research, along with providing treatment. The government assures you of fulfilling all your requirements.”
Recalling the fight against encephalitis, the chief minister pointed out that since 1998 a mass movement was started on this issue, but unfortunately there was not a single research paper on encephalitis. “Every patient serves as the focus of medical study. The doctors can conduct research while going about their normal lives,” he said
“Students studying medicine should not confine themselves to labs and libraries and instead should visit rural areas to investigate the causes of diseases and write a research paper. Passed out doctors should write research papers based on their experiences. The state government will have a look at their proposals and experiences,” Yogi said.
The chief minister said that the government wanted doctors at government medical colleges to do top-notch work and carry forward new research. “We will lag behind if research and development are interrupted,” the chief minister pointed out.
He said that there was no dearth of medical infrastructure and faculty in the state. “Therefore, it is necessary to run courses and encourage research. By focusing on this, the best results can be achieved. We can advance the entire medical system with research,” Yogi said.
The chief minister said that India had demonstrated excellent COVID-19 management to the rest of the world under the leadership of Prime Minister Narendra Modi through sensitive behaviour and prompt judgements. The prime minister not only arranged for free treatment, tests and vaccine for novel coronavirus but also 80 crore people were given free ration, he added.
Stating that the Japanese Encephalitis was detected in eastern Uttar Pradesh in 1977-78, the chief minister said, “The chain of deaths as a result of this lasted for 40 continuous years until 2017. Its vaccine was made in Japan in 1905 but it took the vaccine 100 years to reach Gorakhpur. During the novel coronavirus period, the nation created two indigenous vaccines in just nine months under the direction of Prime Minister Narendra Modi.”
The chief minister added that the All India Institute of Medical Sciences (AIIMS) and BRD Medical College should have healthy competition. He pointed out that Prime Minister Narendra Modi had visited Gorakhpur in 2016 and given the city the gift of AIIMS while keeping encephalitis and infectious illnesses in mind. “Now what is needed is a healthy competition for medical facilities in AIIMS and BRD Medical College,” he added.
Stressing that the BRD Medical College was the only medical college in the country to have a Regional Medical Research Centre on its campus, the chief minister said the government would ensure that there was no shortage at BRD Medical College.
He said that once BRD Medical College was the only medical college in Gorakhpur Basti, Devipatan, Ayodhya and Azamgarh divisions but today medical colleges had opened in Deoria, Basti, Siddharthnagar, Bahraich, Ayodhya, Ambedkar Nagar and Azamgarh. He said medical colleges were being set up in Kushinagar, Gonda, Balrampur and Sultanpur on a war footing and the process of setting up a medical college on public-private participation (PPP) model in Maharajganj had also been taken forward.
Remembering his association with BRD Medical College, Chief Minister Yogi Adityanath said that for 30 years he had been associated with this medical college. “With my own eyes, I have witnessed its struggle. BRD Medical College has suffered the brunt of neglect for a long time. Its existence itself was in danger. This medical college would have been relocated somewhere else due to the attitude of the previous governments,” he said.
The chief minister said that things had changed and BRD Medical College was now the leading institution for health care and training. He pointed out that BRD Medical College had a wide range of facilities, including a super-specialty block.
During the golden jubilee celebrations of BRD Medical College, Chief Minister Yogi Adityanath inaugurated the Swarna Jayanti Dwar (main gate). On this occasion, the foundation stone of a double storey, 100-room hostel for the students of Pharmacy and Nursing College was also laid by him.
The doctors also received ODOP products as gifts from Chief Minister Yogi Adityanath during the golden jubilee celebrations of BRD Medical College and silver jubilee celebration of the 1997 batch.