He was speaking at the inaugural function of the 54th annual conference of the Indian Association of Cardiovascular and Thoracic surgeons, which is being held in the city after a gap of 18 years. The conference, which will be on till February 24, is being organised by the Department of cardiovascular thoracic surgery of the Military Hospital, Cardio Thoracic Centre, and the Armed Forces Medical College.

The Governor said there are 1.5 million children who require surgery for congenital heart defects. We spend 4.8 per cent of our GDP on health care but this is inadequate. While we have about 50 training programmes, with 100 residents completing training every year, about a 1000 cardiothoracic surgeons perform 70-80000 surgeries per year in 174 centres. Out of these, less than 10 institutions tackle complex congenital cases, yet the results are excellent. However, there is a need for more centres to attend to small children, he said, calling for intensive efforts nationally in the field of paediatric cardiac surgery. He also spoke about the scope of medical tourism and cited a recent study by the Confederation of Indian Industry, which stated that 150,000 persons from abroad visited India for medical treatment, with the number rising by 15 per cent.

D K Satsangi, president of the national executive committee, association of cardiothoracic surgeons, lamented the corporatisation of hospitals and said that drug companies were treating doctors shabbily.