Experts urge govt to step up spend on healthcare

Experts in various fields have urged the government to step up its spend on health infrastructure in order to provide better medical facilities to the people.

Currently, the government spends only one per cent of the GDP on medical infrastructure, which is not enough and becomes a limitation for medical practitioners, D Y Patil University Vice Chancellor Dr Sanjay Oak said here at the conference, 'Medical Profession - Welfare not Warfare'.

On 'Criminal negligence and role of police in medico-legal cases', Thane's Joint Commissioner of Police V V Lakshmi Narayan said, "Temples, schools and families are the institutions where we learn values. Ideally, we should have a society without police stations; why do we need someone to monitor our behaviour, (but) that is possible only when our upbringing is based on values."

Industrialist Hrishikesh Mukherjee spoke about values and ethics that doctors need to adopt while treating patients.

Insisting that one should never leave any debts, he said, "Our action is based on values and our decisions are driven by values."

Oak said that a complete doctor is one who is not arrogant but humble, honest and hard working.

"In 2016, we should give credit to humanitarian work in the curriculum rather than just bookish knowledge. We should not consider the patient as a client but as a person who needs medical assistance, and the attitude towards handling patients will automatically change," he said.

ISKCON spiritual leader Radhanath Swami said, "A true doctor in spirit is the one who from the core of the heart treats each and every patient as he would like himself to be treated when he is a patient.

"Success comes from the quality of what you have, but in pursuit of quantity, we forget quality and we cannot be happy unless we have a quality life. We must see the presence of God in our patients and that will come when the upbringing of doctors is based on values," he said.

Over 500 doctors participated in the conclave, which was organised by the Global Foundation for Ethics and Spiritual Health here on Sunday, a release said.