Quality healthcare not a luxury but a necessity, says Mukherjee

President Pranab Mukherjee yesterday said quality healthcare was a necessity for every individual and underlined the need to ensure better infrastructure in rural areas so that doctors serve there.At the foundation of the Shambhu Shetty Memorial Haji Abdullah Super Speciality Hospital here, the president said quality healthcare was not a luxury but a necessity and noted that against the international norm of one doctor per thousand population, India had one doctor for 1,700 people.“The situation is more alarming in rural India where the shortage of surgeons is 83.4%, obstetricians and gynaecologists 76.3%, paediatricians 82.1% and general physicians 83% at the level of the community health centres,” he said.“This is compounded by the fact that we educate and train about 50% less doctors than our requirement stands at,” Mukherjee said, stressing that the shortage of doctors requires immediate intervention and emphasised on more focus and investments in the field of preventive healthcare.Mukherjee called for ample infrastructure at the district and other rural areas and to encourage doctors and practitioners to serve there. The president also emphasised on the need to increase engagement of the corporate sector in public-private partnership in the field of public health, especially in rural areas.“Though advances in modern medicine and investment in health infrastructure have made many diseases like cholera, smallpox, plague and tuberculosis curable, there is a huge gap in our country for access to medicine and healthcare, which is skewed in terms of infrastructure and personnel,” he said.Asserting that only a healthy mind and healthy body can be the abode of God, the president said access to affordable healthcare should be the objective.He also spoke against attacks by patients’ relatives on doctors, calling for co-operation between doctors, medical personalities and patients, their friends and relatives.“Sometimes we find that if a patient dies, the angry mob led by their relatives vandalises the hospital, beats the physician or surgeons. This is not good. No civilised society can tolerate it,” he said. “Yes, doctors can try, medicines can do wonders, but at the same time one has to keep in mind that there would be deaths. This type of vandalism should be condemned.”Karnataka Health Minister Ramesh Kumar and Bengaluru Development Minister K J George were among the dignitaries present on the occasion.Later, the president visited the famous Sri Krishna temple in this pilgrim town in coastal Dakshina Kannada district.Ahead of the president’s visit, shops around the temple and along the Car Street were shut by the district administration for security reasons.