Maintaining that preventive healthcare and proper lifestyle would come in handy in keeping all illnesses at bay, Prime Minister Narendra Modi said here on Saturday that his Government laid stress on providing clean drinking water to people across the country so as bring about vast improvement in the health sector.
In his address after inaugurating the Sir HN Reliance Foundation Hospital & Research Centre here, Modi said: “In the field of health, preventive care plays a crucial role. After one gets ill it is expensive to cure the illness that he or she suffers from. That’s why prevention is economical. Unfortunately there is not much of consciousness among the people about the preventive care and life styles”.
Underscoring the need for making available clean drinking water to people, the Prime Minister said: “If we make available clean potable water to people, then we can bring about improvement in the health sector. Clean drinking water for all would be the biggest source of preventive healthcare”.
Dwelling upon the hygiene, the Prime Minister said that inculcating habits in children like washing hands properly before eating had become extremely important and appreciated a mass drive undertaken by the Madhya Pradesh government for spreading the importance of washing hands before eating, an initiative that has found a place of Guinness Book of World records.
Expressing concern over India's health indicators such as infant mortality and maternal mortality rates, the Prime Minister said: “Whenever a child falls into a borewell, television channels telecast the event across the country very minutely till such time that the child is removed from the borewell or dies inside it. Every family across the country is glued to television sets for hours on end. The families are concerned about the welfare of the child inside the well. But, unfortunately we do not realise that in our neighbourhoods, hundreds of children die even before they are born. So do the pregnant mothers”.
Modi said that both the government and the society should work hand in hand to ensure basic health facilities to poor and neddy people across the country. "I am not the one to say that the earlier governments have not done anything in the field of heath sector. Every government has done something good in its respective tenure. We are also committed to doing our best. People should also support our initiatives,” he said.
He said even if one child fell in a borewell, the entire country was worried, but we need to generate more awareness about the hundreds of children who are unable to survive due to lack of primary healthcare facilities. He said society and government should together give priority to the poorest of poor and make whatever efforts we can to provide affordable health services. He said the Reliance Foundation Hospital was a step in that direction.
Alluding to his recent speech in the United States, Modi said that in his address, he had mooted an International yoga day. “I am pushing for celebration of an international yoga day. I am optimistic that the UN will accept my accept my suggestion... Holistic care has become a major attraction in the world... Even good doctors are turning to homeopathy... So much so that holistic health has become flavour of the season. People are looking for ways to make their lives stress-free than being stresful as is case now”.
The Prime Minister said that medical equipment was gaining increasing importance in the field of healthcare “The need of the hour is for India to manufacture such equipment, as part of the 'Make in India' programme, so that it becomes available to the poorest of people even in remote corners of India,” he said.
Referring to the Digital India programme of the Centre, Modi said one of the primary aims of the programme is to ensure advanced healthcare in remote areas through telemedicine, and best education for poor.
Heaping praise on the quality of doctors and scientists produced by India, Modi said: “Our doctors have an excellent reputation all over the world... Patients look forward to getting operated by Indian surgeons... We are a country of 12 crore people what we can not do.. . When I talk of Mars, what comes to my mind is that you spend as much as `10 to 12 per km to travel by an autorickshaw, where as our scientists managed to send a spaceship to Mars at a cost of just `7 per km, We will reap the benefits of money spent in the coming years.”
Kokilaben Ambani presented a memento to the Prime Minister, on the occasion.
Chairperson of Reliance Foundation Nita Ambani in her welcome address, spoke about the facilities available in the hospital. She said, the hospital has drawn up an ambitious outreach programme benefitting over 3 lakh people. She said that 50 doctors of Indian origin from USA, UK, Australia and other developed countries have returned to India to serve the nation.
Mukesh Ambani delivered a vote of thanks. The Governor of Maharashtra C Vidyasagar Rao, Union Minister Nitin Gadkari, State BJP president Devendra Fadnavis, senior leader Vinod Tawde, Rajya Sabha MP Parimal Nathwani, a host of Bollywood celebrities including Amitabh Bachchan, Shah Rukh Khan, Amir Khan, Hrithik Roshan, Aishwarya Rai, Asha Bhosle, cricketer and Bharat Ratna awardee Sachin Tendulkar, Mahendra Singh Dhoni and Sunil Gavaskar were among those present. Paresh Rawal, MP was the Master of Ceremony.
located in south Mumbai, the Sir HN Reliance Foundation Hospital & Research Centre in its 90th year, has been completely rebuilt by Reliance Foundation into a most-modern 19-storey tower and two heritage wings. The foundation is headed by Nita Ambani.
Founded in 1925 as Mumbai’s first general Hospital, it has a rich history behind it. It witnessed the freedom struggle and the Second World War and one of the most frequent visitors then was Mahatma Gandhi.
The Hospital celebrated its silver jubilee with Sardar Vallabhbhai Patel as its Chief Guest, while lok Nayak Jayaprakash Narayan was the guest of hour at its golden Jubilee celebrations.
The heritage building of the hospital has been refurbished, while a new 19 floor structure, with state-of-the-art medical equipments has been added. The hospital is also equipped with robotic surgery and on-line video conferencing for global consultations. The hospital plans to reserve a fifth of its capacity for the underprivileged and provide 10 per cent beds for free to the needy and another 10 per cent at subsidised rates.