New Delhi, December 17
The medical research in the country must strive to be at par with the international standards, the Prime Minister, Mr Atal Behari Vajpayee, said here today and lamented the inadequate medical research in the country.
Inaugurating the Vardhman Mahavir Medical College at Safdarjung Hospital, Mr Vajpayee said, “We have not been able to give attention to medical research. Medical colleges and hospitals should occupy a prime place in the international arena and efforts should be made in this direction.”
The Union Health Minster, Dr C. P. Thakur, said the national capital was getting a medical college after a gap of nearly three decades. The government was planning to set up a trauma centre at Ram Manohar Lohia Hospital, he said. The medical facilities in the hospital had come under sharp criticism after the injured in the Parliament shootout were taken there for treatment.
Accepting that the medical fraternity faced several constraints due to the increasing number of patients, Mr Vajpayee said that research work should also go along with the normal functioning.
He said that though medical colleges and hospitals came under the category of industry, their administration should be different since health was the primary need of the people. The medical field should not be commercialised.
Though several private medical colleges were being opened in the country, they were not imparting education to the poor, he said, and added that only government medical colleges could fulfill this demand.
It was easy to give name to a college but difficult to live upto that name, he said referring to the name of Vardhman Mahavir Medical College.
With the setting up of a new medical college, a long-standing demand of Delhi, which was witnessing a fast increase in its population, would be met, he said.
Dr Thakur said the Jain community had expressed its desire to meet the education expenses of the children of the eight security personnel and watch and ward staff killed in the terror attack on Parliament on December 13 up to the postgraduate level. The community had also decided to start a dharamsala in the hospital to provide food.
Mr Thakur said Rs 81.6 crore had been allocated for running the college in which 50 per cent of the seats would be for the National Capital Territory (NCT) candidates while the rest would be open to students from other parts of the country.
An examination would be held for admitting the first batch of students for the session, which was likely to start from two months from now, Thakur said. He said the college would help in providing quality care to patients and decreasing the load on neighbouring AIIMS.
