Urging the medical fraternity to work for the underprivileged, the PM said: “Our health indicators do not compare well with what a number of other countries, particularly in South East Asia, have achieved. We spent one per cent of the GDP on health care while we should aspire to raise it to 2 to 3 percent.”

The PM further called for the need to introduce a structural change in the healthcare sector to improve the delivery of services at the grassroots level and help the underprivileged access medical facilities.

Dr Singh also told doctors to remain tuned to the ground realities of patients’ requirements. “As in economics, in medicine too it is easy to get lost in high-level research and forget ground realities. A common perception among the people is that institutions running with public money end up as ivory towers,” he said, adding that the system needs to be more sensitive to the needs of women and children.

Calling the “hospital-centered approach” to health care “excessively costly,” the prime minister said a more balanced approach would be the inclusion of “preventive health care.” Lauding the PGI for itsachievements in the presence of a full house comprising faculty, former professors and directors of the institute, Dr Singh said the mission of the PGI will remain incomplete unless the concerns of the common man are addressed effectively.

“Institutions like PGI must link more effectively with the community and address its needs. Medical and para-medical personnel should imbibe a sense of commitment for the welfare of the common man,” the PM said. “Through your research, you must attempt to discover the most cost-effective strategies of prevention and treatment of diseases,” he exhorted the medical fraternity.

Guests of honour
As many as 361 students received their post-graduate degrees in various specialty and super-specialty courses at the institute’s 30th annual convocation ceremony.

Union Health and Family Welfare Minister Ghulam Nabi Azad, Governors of Punjab and Haryana, S F Rodrigues and Jagannath Pahadia respectively, Union ministers Selja and Pawan Kumar Bansal, Punjab and Haryana Chief Ministers Parkash Singh Badal and Bhupinder Singh Hooda were also present on the occasion.