Bhubaneswar: Odisha’s Deputy Chief Minister Kanak Vardhan Singh Deo said here on Friday that medical education has to be made affordable so that healthcare could reach every doorstep.
“Good medical care is available in the major cities and people from rural areas have to be brought to those hospitals from distant places for treatment. Invariably, lives are lost,” Singh Deo said while addressing the inaugural session of 4th World Conference on Comprehensive Critical Care (W4C) and 2nd Odisha Criticon 2024.
The Deputy CM observed that young men and women keen to pursue a career in medical science need to spend a lot of money and are often reluctant to go to rural areas after becoming doctors.
“Medical education needs to be made affordable so that we can provide medical help to the people in villages,” Singh Deo opined.
He assured that the BJP government in Odisha was committed to extending all support for creation of medical infrastructure at the grassroots level in the state.
“The government is willing to do the handholding for any entrepreneur willing to do it,” the deputy CM stated.
The four-day conference, which began on Thursday, is being hosted by SUM Ultimate Medicare (SUMUM) in collaboration with Bhubaneswar Chapter of Indian Society for Critical Care Foundation (ISCCM). The theme of the conference is ‘Multi-organ Failure: Prevention and Management Demystified.’ A book on the subject was unveiled on the occasion.
The inaugural session was also attended by Chairman of ISCCM Prof. (Dr) Pradeep Kumar Bhattacharya, CEO of SUMUM Dr Swetapadma Dash, Chairman-cum-Managing Trustee of W4C Prof. (Dr) Narendra Rungta, Head of Critical Care Medicine department at SUMUM and Organising Chairman W4C Dr Banambar Ray, and Senior Consultant, Critical Care Medicine at SUMUM and Organising Secretary of the event Dr Anand Mishra.
Several critical care experts from India and abroad were felicitated. They included Director of Critical Care Medicine at Rhode Island Prof. (Dr) Mitchell M Levy, New South Wales Prof. (Dr) Michael O’Leary, and King’s College Hospital (London) Prof. (Dr) Roopen Arya.
Experts from India who were felicitated included Dr Samir Sahu, Dr Sharmilee Sinha, Dr Pragyan Routray and Dr Prashant Kumar.
