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The Vice-President Shri Bhairon Singh Shekhawat has said that we must strive to achieve excellence in healthcare and ensure availability of the best of facilities for treatment. Inaugurating the 6‘th. Asia-Pacific Congress of Cardiovascular and Interventional Radiology’ here today, Shri Shekhawat however expressed his concern and anxiety to ensure that the poor and the deprived ones are also able to have access to basic healthcare. For better understanding of the dynamics of the public healthcare system in the developing countries, such as ours, the core relationship between poverty and disease needs to be understood , he emphasized.
Shri Shekhawat noted that the latest technological equipments of interventional radiology are still not widely available in India. The major limiting factor seems to be the high cost of the equipment, as most of the equipment have to be imported. Only an affluent section of our population can afford to derive benefits from the interventional radiology that still remains an expensive proposition in our country. This must change if the benefits of Cardiovascular and Interventional Radiology techniques are to reach and become affordable to a large number of people, he added.
Following is the text of the address of the Vice-President Shri Bhairon Singh Shekhawat at the inauguration of "6th. Asia-Pacific Congress of Cardiovascular and Interventional Radiology" here today :
" I am glad to be here amidst the galaxy of eminent professionals and experts in the field of cardiovascular and interventional radiology from so many countries. I extend my warm greetings to all of you. I also thank Dr. Venugopal, Director of AIIMS and the Organising Committee for giving me this opportunity to be with you here today.
It is a nice feeling to be in the precincts of AIIMS. Visiting this Medical Institute of highest standards of excellence is always a great pleasure. It also becomes a matter of great honour when one visits AIIMS to be with the eminent delegates to an important international Conference like this. There is yet one more reason for my added happiness. The doctors of AIIMS are thorough professionals and eminent specialists. My relationship with them has been very close and intimate as I have also been patient to many of them. And I must say they always take very good care of me.
However, I am wondering why the organisers of the function chose to invite me. All of you are distinguished professionals, experts and specialists. Your technical deliberations and discussions are going to be in a language beyond my comprehension. My guess is that, perhaps, in this gathering you were looking for the presence of an odd patient because doctors do need patients for their professional practice. Of course, relationship between doctors and patients is always very close and intimate. Famous poet Rudyard Kipling had said, I quote: "There are only two classes of mankind in the world – doctors and patients." Unquote. These two classes have a strong bond between them. And I, belonging to the class of patients, do admit to possess impressive qualifications: I represent those distinguished beneficiaries of the kindness of cardiovascular surgeons who have undergone bypass surgery not just once but twice! Thanks to my doctor friends, my heart is quite strong, I feel young at heart and in spirits and, above all, my heart continues to be in the right place.
Friends, today we are living in a world that is changing fast. New inventions in medical sciences are providing ways and means for controlling diseases and constantly improving the quality of healthcare. The transformation in the role of radiologists to start using images to guide and execute various interventional treatment strategies has given rise to the new sub-specialty of interventional radiology.
I am informed that the new techniques offered by this sub-specialty are having a major impact in clinical medicine. The new treatment methods are used widely in diseases of various organ systems such as liver, intestinal tract, genitor-urinary system and brain among others. Rapid strides have been made in the management of strokes and also of various types of cancers by using local delivery of drugs in the cancerous tissue, radio- frequency or other forms of ablation of the tumors and other techniques. There is also a tremendous interest in targeted delivery of stem cells for treatment of a wide variety of chronic, debilitating diseases. I am glad to learn that the advances in modern interventional radiological technology have made it possible for the surgeons to reduce the margin of medical error and also helped the operating physicians to ensure radiation safety.
Interventional procedures now have the potential to revolutionise the healthcare management by maximizing patient benefit. These techniques are cost effective, have much less morbidity and mortality and can substantially reduce the hospital stay of the patient. In this manner, they have the potential to significantly increase the patient through-put. Therefore, their induction into the management of patients has major implications in improving the overall healthcare of the population. We need to improve the awareness among both the surgeons and patients, educate them on the scope and benefits of these techniques and train the specialists to operate these procedures flawlessly with immaculate precision and accuracy.
Interventional radiology is, indeed, a rapidly advancing branch of medicine with its knowledge frontiers expanding fast. We, therefore, need to constantly add to our learning in order to be latest. I compliment the Asia-Pacific Society for working at bringing the latest developments in this field to various countries of the region by holding its biannual meetings in different countries by rotation. I am also glad to note that the Indian Society is actively engaged in ensuring that the state-of-the-art techniques are adopted and practised with the highest professional standards in our country. The efforts of the Society in training and education of physicians and surgeons, building up national registry of procedures and improving awareness among the clinicians and patients alike, are certainly commendable.
Friends, let me share with you my one heartfelt concern. While we must strive to achieve excellence in healthcare and ensure availability of the best of facilities for treatment, my greater concern and anxiety is to ensure that the poor and the deprived ones are also able to have access to basic healthcare. In my long public life, I have seen the misery of the common man, his pain and anguish for not having any access to basic services of health and education. For better understanding of the dynamics of the public healthcare system in the developing countries, such as ours, the core relationship between poverty and disease needs to be understood. I have, therefore, always been concerned as to how modern science and technology can become effective tools in improving the quality of healthcare of the people.
My other concern is that the latest technological equipments of interventional radiology are still not widely available in India. The major limiting factor seems to be the high cost of the equipment, as most of the equipments have to be imported. Only an affluent section of our population can afford to derive benefits from the interventional radiology that still remains an expensive proposition in our country. This must change if the benefits of your ideas and your expertise are to reach and become affordable to a much larger number of people.
Friends, with these words, I have great pleasure to inaugurate the 6th Asia-Pacific Congress of Cardiovascular and Interventional Radiology. I do hope the deliberations by eminent specialists and experts here in this joint meeting of the Congress and the Indian Society would enhance international understanding in the sharing of scientific achievement and knowledge for the benefit of mankind; that these would go a long way in promoting the cause of affordable healthcare for all. I wish you all success."
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