Shekhawat calls for providing affordable healthcare to poor

Wardha, Apr 12 (UNI) Vice-President Bhairon Singh Shekhawat today stressed the need for an affordable healthcare for the poor as 26 per cent of the Indian population was living below poverty line.

Commissioning the indigenously built Linera Accelerator in the Mahatma Gandhi Institute of Medical Sciences here, Mr Shekhawat said providing basic healthcare to all was a major challenge and it was of crucial importance to evolve a comprehensive agenda for improving medical and healthcare services which have inclusive of coverage of the poor and deprived sections.

He said that key to an affordable and reliable healthcare system lies in the intelligent integration of all systems of medicines-- Allopathy, Unani, Homeopathy, Ayurveda and Yoga.

''We need to formulate a policy based on utilising the best elements which reflect the strength of traditional and modern systems for ensuring affordable universal healthcare. Also, with the use of information technology, we should deepen the reach of medical facilities even upto the remotest areas,'' Mr Shekhawat said.

The Vice-President felt that it was imperative to augument facilities for cancer treatment as it was one of the 10 leading causes of death. ''Every year over 7 lakh new cases of cancer and three lakh deaths occur due to the disease while nearly 15 lakh patients require diagnosis, treatment and follow up at a given time,'' he added.

With the commissioning of the Linear Accelerator, this Medical Institute will be able to provide qualitative cancer treatment to the poor in this backward region of Vidarbha, he said and hoped that it would also evolve a suitable model of universal healthcare particularly to make access to basic health services affordable to the poor and the deprived.

UNI