Over 350 delegates attended the CME
Ludhiana: 11 August 2015: (Punjab Screen Bureau):
There is
need for collective effort to prevent the biggest ever health tragedy as atomic
bombing on Hiroshima and Nagasaki killed over two lakh people in a matter of
minutes. Doctors are duty bound morally and ethically to work for the
development of society through health. This was the message that emanated from
the Continuous Medical Education programme organized to commemorate the 70th
Anniversary of atomic bombing on Nagasaki in Japan on 9th August
1945, by the department of Community Medicine, Government Medical College,
Amritsar in collaboration with Indian Doctors For Peace And Development (IDPD)
& Social Medicine Association on the Theme “Health, Development & Ethics”.
The event
discussed several related subjects viz: Humanitarian Impact of Nuclear Weapons;
National Health Policy; Medical Ethics and Food Security Act - Strength and Limitations.
Principal
GMC, Amritsar Dr. Santokh Singh inaugurated the CME followed by welcome speech
by Dr. S.S. Deepti.
Dr. Tejbir
Singh, Head of the department of Community Medicine, GMC Amritsar highlighted the
importance of the conference and invited Dr. S.S.Soodan (Vice President IDPD)
who gave a brief history of the idea behind the formation of IDPD and also
about the work being done so far concerning the peace in various nations around
the world.
Dr. Amarjit
Singh Sidhu from School of Buisness, Guru Nanak Dev University, Amritsar
started with his first session on Food Security Act; he stressed that the need
of this act is because of the inequalities in wealth and total income. Only
2.5% of the people own 83% of global wealth. He further elaborated regarding
the various entitlements and beneficiaries covered under the act. Following
this, Dr. G.S.Grewal (President, Punjab Medical Council) emphasized the
importance of principles in life, particularly the role of ethics in medical
profession. He said that it’s a noble profession and all doctors should commit
themselves not to indulge in any malpractices. To regulate the medical profession
in the state the PMC has to take several steps to stop the practice of cuts and commissions
and advertisements to entice the patients, he said.
In the
second session, Dr. Bharti Uppal; National Finance Secretary, IDPD discussed
about Wars and its devastating long term consequences on health. Then Dr. Arun
Mitra (Gen.Secretary IDPD) gave a brief note on medical ethics and its falling
standards.
After this
in the end, Panel discussion was conducted on “National Health Policy (Draft) 2015”
by Dr. A.S. Padda, Ex-Principal & Head Department of Community Medicine,
GMC as moderator. The first panelist Dr. Shakeel ur Rehman (Secretary IDPD)
highlighted that privatization of secondary and tertiary health services should
not be there and he said that 2% of Indian population is going below the
poverty line every year due to out of pocket expenditure on health. After this
Dr. Karanjit Singh (Ex-Director Health Services Punjab) discussed about mother
& child health component of the policy and the progress made so far. Dr.
Vitull K. Gupta (Associate professor Medicine, AIMSR, Bathinda) emphasized that
there is total disconnect between ground level reality and the implementation
of the policy. He further enlightened that there is need to implement what is
being written in the draft.
The last
topic of discussion was by Dr. Amritpal Kaur Dhillon (Associate Professor Obst
& Gynae, GMC Amritsar) regarding women health issues addressed in the
policy.
Over 350
delegates attended the CME. The session concluded with the valedictory function
and vote of thanks by Dr. Sanjeev Mahajan.