Advanced care must no longer remain luxury: LG
Urges for allocation of annual budgets for specialised infra Excelsior Correspondent SRINAGAR, Aug 26: Lieutenant Governor, Manoj Sinha today stressed that the advanced care must no longer remain a luxury confined to metropolitan cities. "Quaternary care should not be a...
Urges for allocation of annual budgets for specialised infra
Excelsior Correspondent
SRINAGAR, Aug 26: Lieutenant Governor, Manoj Sinha today stressed that the advanced care must no longer remain a luxury confined to metropolitan cities.
"Quaternary care should not be a privilege reserved for the economically rich section of society. It must become a right of citizenship and a guarantee of the nation," the LG told a gathering at the Quaternary Healthcare & Research Summit held at SKICC in Srinagar today.
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"For a very long time, quaternary care has been viewed as a luxury available only in metropolitan cities and accessible only to those who can afford it. I wish to state clearly from this platform that this era must now come to an end. The cooperation of all the stakeholders, private hospitals and research centres is essential for fulfilling this resolve," he said.
Sinha called upon hospitals to transform themselves into research institutions capable of organ transplantation, robotic and precision surgery, advanced genomics, cellular therapies, and AI-supported diagnostics.
The LG urged hospitals to allocate annual budgets for specialised infrastructure such as modern operating theatres and proton-beam therapy facilities.
"We must always remember that a quaternary centre should be capable of offering every diagnosis and treatment permitted by science. Therefore, hospitals will also have to make budgetary provisions to access expensive and modern technologies such as robotic surgery, gene therapy, proton-beam therapy and artificial-intelligence-based advanced diagnostics," he said.
Sinha suggested building of a new corridor to connect district hospitals and tertiary centres directly with quaternary-care institutions, accelerating diagnostics, imaging, and specialist consultations. He said telemedicine and AI-enabled diagnostic tools should be integrated into standard healthcare infrastructure.
The LG appealed for expanded fellowship and training opportunities in organ transplantation, oncology, genomics, and critical care. "Advanced care is impossible without advanced specialists," he said.
Sinha suggested a mission uniting Himalayan states, Jammu and Kashmir, universities, hospitals, private institutions and innovators to jointly advance biomedical research and overcome funding challenges.
"We must develop new inventions ourselves instead of importing innovation from abroad," he said.
The LG urged that hospitals be regarded as strategic national assets just like highways and ports, ensuring their preservation and development with equal dedication.
"We must create a robust quaternary-care framework that guarantees equal access to the son of a farmer and to a millionaire living in a city," he said.
Sinha highlighted India's remarkable progress under the leadership of Prime Minister, Narendra Modi.
"Expansion of infrastructure with 23 AIIMS, 2,045 medical colleges, and in Jammu Kashmir, 2 AIIMS, 10 medical colleges, 2 State Cancer Institutes, a Bone and Joint Hospital, a Paediatric Hospital, 52 nursing colleges, 23 paramedical colleges, and 5 pharmacy colleges are providing robust support to healthcare ecosystem. These figures show that India has succeeded in elevating primary, secondary, and tertiary care. But the time has come to scale up tertiary hospitals into quaternary centres," he said.
On the occasion, Sinha released Summit Souvenir and several publications.
