Health Care Services to be one of the best in India as invisioned by us-Dr Vijay Singla Health & FW and Medical Education Research Minster Punjab

7th April  Chandigarh
 
‘We are committed to make Punjab the Healthiest State of India’, said Dr. Vijay Singla, the Hon’ble Health and Medical Education Minister of Punjab along with other newly elected representative doctors (MLAs) of Punjab during the consultation entitled “Politico-administrative commitment for saving our planet from rising NCDs’ organized by the Department of Community Medicine and School of Public Health, PGIMER, Chandigarh in collaboration with the Indian Medical Association (IMA), Chandigarh and Strategic Institute for Medical Education and Research (SIPHER), Chandigarh on the occasion of World Health Day, 2022 in Chandigarh Press Club. World Health Day (WHD) is celebrated every year on the 7th of April across the globe to raise awareness of diverse stakeholders on diverse public health issues. Dr. Rakesh Gupta, Director,Public Health and President, SIPHER, Chandigarh said that,based on the theme of World Health Day 2022, “Our Planet, Our Health”, the elected State Representative doctors were invited to share their ‘Health Vision’ for the state of Punjab. He also enlisted the activities being undertaken by SIPHER for the prevention and control of Noncommunicable diseases in the state of Punjab over the last 3 years.
Highlighting the need and objectives of the consultation, Dr. Sonu Goel, Professor, Department of Community Medicine and School of Public Health, PGIMER, Chandigarh directed the attention of the elected doctor MLAs towards the alarming figures of Noncommunicable diseases in the state of Punjab. He emphasized that the discussions laid down during the consultation could be used as a blueprint to develop a action plan for ‘Healthy Punjab’ for the next five years.
During the panel discussion, Dr. Charanjit Singh,am eminent Ophthalmologist and elected doctor representative from Chamakur Sahib, put forward the vision and ideas for providing better healthcare services in the state of Punjab, with a special focus on noncommunicable diseases. Deliberations were held regarding the gaps in the infrastructure, supplies, human resources, policy, and implementation to provide quality and need-based health care services. Besides, a framework for the action plan for forthcoming years was also discussed.
During the consultation, the annual reports and newsletter of the two key projects on NCDs (Hypertension and Tobacco) undertaken by PGIMER and SIPHER Chandigarh were also released. The key highlights were: establishment and operationalization of telemedicine ‘Hub and Spoke’ model in the state of Punjab, capacity building of 2000+ community health officers; creation of ‘Resource Center for Cardiovascular Health (www.rccvh.org) and Resource Center for Tobacco Control (www.rctcpgi.org)’; launch of various health campaigns such as ‘#transfatfreediwalicampaign’ ‘#yogahibpbyecampaign’; MoU between PGIMER and FDA Commissioner, Punjab for implementation of the transfat surveillance; liasoning with 30+media houses and publication of 250+ news articles; publication of special issue on hypertension in the Journal of Family Medicine and Primary Care; creating a pool of 200+ ambassadors for prevention and management of hypertension, and many more. A report of ‘Accessing Digital Healthcare Services during COVID’-By SIPHER and Healthy India Alliance was also released by Hon’ble Health Minister.
Congratulating the PGIMER and SIPHER team, Dr. Ramneek Sharma, President, Indian Medical Association, Chandigarh applauded their efforts in organizing such kind of event in which the political advocates are taking ownership and being involved in the planning of activities for building Healthy Nation and Healthy Punjab. Dr. Baljit Kaur, Cabinet Minister, Dept. of Social Justice and Empowerment and Minorities, was reprented by Dr Alamjit Dhhillon who stated, “We aim to make Punjab No. 1 in terms of health care with the support of PGIMER and SIPHER.” Dr. Rana J Singh, Deputy Regional Director, the UNION-South East Asia, also highlighted the importance of tackling the risk factors of noncommunicable diseases in the state of Punjab.
There was a media interaction of Hon’ble Health Minister Dr Vijay Singla.He gave a road map of improving the Health Care services in Punjab.
He stated that Non-Communicable diseases like CVDs/HT/DM/Cancer etc account for 60% of deaths. We plan to do for managing these by controlling abuse of Tobacco, Alcohol, and addicting Drugs. Our endeavour will be to ensure less use of Salt, sweets and Transfats by bakeries and other food manufacturers.He added that,there are gaps in Infrastructure and Manpower in Govt health institutes all over Punjab and we will be upgrading all the health institutes and recruiting more doctors and Paramedical staff in a time bound manner.He deliberated upon various issues like problems are being faced by Pvt Docs / Nursing homes / Corporate Hospitals in our state and plan to resolve their issues very soon. We will also ensure enforcement of laws regarding violence against doctors.He also said that Public Health is important for ensuring prevention of diseases whether Communicable or Non-Communicable so we will involve academic institutes like PGI Chandigarh, NGOs working in Public Health like SIPHER,IMA and IDA etc.The panel discussion ended with brief about SIPHER activities and a vote of thanks by Sh Arun Verma Director Operations SIPHER