Excelsior Correspondent
NEW DELHI, Apr 19: Army Medical Chief, Lt. Gen. Bipin Puri today called on Union Minister of State (Independent Charge) of the Ministry of Development of North-Eastern Region (DoNER), MoS PMO, Personnel, Public Grievances & Pensions, Atomic Energy & Space, Dr Jitendra Singh and discussed J&K and related issues pertaining to healthcare services.
Lt. Gen. Puri, who is presently the Director General of Armed Forces Medical Services and has in the past served as the Head of the Command Hospital at Udhampur, also proposed to hold Multi-specialty Medical Camps, beginning from Bhaderwah. Brigadier Narendra Kotwal, Chief Endocrinologist who hails from Jammu & Kashmir, also accompanied Gen. Puri during the meeting.
It was decided that, to begin with,a formal proposal will soon be moved for holding Multi-specialty Medical Camps for the benefit of the residents of the erstwhile district of Doda.
Gen. Puri also took up with Dr Jitendra Singh a DoPT (Department of Personnel & Training) related issue pertaining to Advanced Professional Programme in Public Administration (APPPA) being conducted for Army Officers under the aegis of the Union Ministry of Personnel. He requested that the number of slots available for the training under this programme should be increased so that more number of Army officers could be accommodated. Dr Jitendra Singh advised Gen. Puri to put up a formal request so that it may be duly processed.
In the course of over half-an-hour meeting, Gen. Puri made a strong plea for enhancing the retirement age of Army doctors and making it at par with the civilian doctors whose age of superannuation has been increased to 65 years. He said that he has made a similar plea before the Defence Minister Nirmala Sitharaman and requested Dr Jitendra Singh to use his good offices to follow up the same.
Gen. Puri also discussed with Dr Jitendra Singh, a number of other measures which could be adopted to improve the standard of healthcare services in the country in general and particularly the Armed Forces Medical Services. In this context, he also mooted the idea of having a common All-India entrance exam for selection for training in nursing courses, on the same pattern as has been recently introduced by the Government of India for entrance to Medical Colleges through the NEET exam.
Follow our WhatsApp channel
