Chandigarh : Shri Ghulam Nabi Azad, Minister of Health and Family Welfare and President of PGIMER appreciated the students who had received their research degree awards and medals today during the 32nd Convocation of PGIMER. He urged upon the youngsters passing out today to take up assignments in rural areas for some years, to begin with. “ I assure you that such a stint will provide immense value addition to your clinical experience apart from the sense of satisfaction derived from fulfilling a social obligation”, he said.
While reading out the mandate of the PGIMER the Minister said, “Over the years PGI has been able to fulfill the role allotted to it, particularly in providing high quality patient care to the poor people living in difficult to access hilly states and other states of the northern region of the country.” He apprised the audience about the various innovative initiatives taken by the Government of India related to health under NRHM and said several steps had been taken to increase the availability of human resources to implement these initiatives:
• Forty-six new medical colleges had been established just in the last two years raising the number from 289 to present day 335.
• The number of MBBS seats had gone up from 32,892 to 41,569, an increase of 8,677 seats. • The number of PG seats had increased form 13,000 to 22,194, an increase of over 9,000 seats.
• The Ministry of Health & Family Welfare had sanctioned a National Institute of Paramedical Sciences at Delhi and 8 Regional Institutes of Excellence at Chandigarh, Lucknow, Bhopal, Hyderabad, Coimbatore, Bhubaneswar, Patna and Aurangabad. Earlier Prof. Yogesh Chawla, Director, PGIMER conveyed his heartiest congratulations to the new degree holders. While informing the audience about the recent achievements of PGI he said, “PGI continues to retain its pre-eminent position by surging forward in terms of expansion and upgradation. PGI is now equipped with the state-of-the-art facilities like Cellonics Laboratory, Interventional Pulmonology Services, a new and expanded Hemodialysis Unit with 25 dialysis stations, Advanced Trauma Centre and Advanced Facility for Small Animal Research. A state-of-the-art Viral Diagnostic Laboratory of Grade 1 largest in the country with ICMR support is being established in the country.
Nucleic Acid Testing Laboratory for screening Transfusion Transmitted Viral Infections is first of its kind in this region. High Energy Linear Accelerator for treating cancer is being established – the only of its kind in the country.” While sharing his vision 2020 with the audience Prof.Chawla said, “PGI has always been craving for more. Achieving goals has always been creating more targets. Hence as a part of our next 10 year plan Institute is now ready with a Vision – 2020 document where we all aspire not only to modernize the Nehru Hospital and Research Blocks of the Institute but to also improve the patient care, medical education and medical research.
The plan for next 10 years includes de-congestion of the Emergency, setting up of various centres of Excellence, state-of-the-art Operation Theatres, and exploring the pathogenesis of various diseases at molecular level. Facility of Liver transplantation and bone marrow transplantation has been added to the existing facility of kidney transplantation. The next step would be to have a facility of Multi Organ Transplantation including lungs, heart, pancreas and intestine. Stem Cell research is exploring new horizons and we may soon have an answer in treating various diseases through various ongoing stem cell projects.”
Today, 382 students were awarded the degrees by Shri Gulam Nabi Azad, Minister of Health and Family Welfare and President of the Institute. During the Convocation PhD was awarded to 28 students; DM (medical super-specialties) of Cardiology, Clinical Pharmacology Endocrinology, Gastroenterology, Pulmonary Medicine, Nephrology, Neurology & Neonatology to 42; MCh (surgical super-specialties) of Cardiovascular and Thoracic Surgery, Neurosurgery, Plastic Surgery, Paediatric Surgery, Surgical Gastroenterology, Urology to 39; MD in the medical specialities of Anaesthesia, Biochemistry, Community Medicine, Dermatology, Medicine, Microbiology, Nuclear Medicine, Gynaecology, Paediatrics, Pathology, Psychiatry, Pharmacology, Radiodiagnosis, Radiotherapy & Transfusion Medicine to 161; MS in the surgical specialities of Otorhinolaryngology, orthopaedic surgery, ophthalmology & surgery to 57; MHA (Master of Hospital Administration) to 4; MPH (Master of Public Health) to 5; MSc in Pharmacology, Biochemistry, Medical Biotechnology, Speech & Hearing & Medical Technology to 14 and BSc. in para-medical courses to 32. The President awarded Gold, Silver & Bronze Medals for outstanding research and academic excellence to the students. The medals include Kataria Memorial Gold Medal to Dr.Kanika Sahni (for the year 2010) and Dr.Venkata Nagarjuna Maturu (for the year 2011); Major General Amir Chand Gold Medal to Dr. Ashvinder Raina (in PhD category, for the year 2010); V.K.Saini Gold Medal to Dr. Shamim Ahmad; R. Nath Gold Medal in the field of Biomedical Sciences to Dr. Ramesh Kandimalla; Aikat Memorial Gold Medal to Ms.Arpana Verma; Silver Medals for Research Work to Dr.Vinayak Mittal and Dr.Gaurav Kumar; Bronze Medals for Research Work to Dr. Indu Sharma. Twenty-seven students of various medical and paramedical courses were awarded Silver Medal and twenty-eight students Bronze Medal for academic excellence. Prof. Y.K Chawla, Director PGIMER presented a memento to the President of the Institute. Prof. Amod Gupta, Dean PGI facilitated the process of giving degrees to the students and Prof. Vinay Sakhuja, Chairman, Institute Function Committee, PGIMER conducted the function. Various Dignitaries, the faculty, students, their parents and other staff of PGI attended the function.