70th Anniversary of atomic bombing on Nagasaki

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 70^th Anniversary of atomic bombing on Nagasaki in Japan on 9^th 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.