New Delhi, Dec 31 (FN Agency) The year 2021 will be a year of ‘’health solutions’’ in which India will emerge as the nerve center of global health while 2020 was a year of ‘’health challenges,’’ Prime Minister Narendra Modi said on Thursday. Speaking after laying the foundation stone of AIIMS at Rajkot through video conference the Prime minister said that in 2021 the world would move towards health solutions with better awareness with India playing a major role in the health solutions as it played in the meeting the challenges of 2020. ‘’India is going to play an important role in both the future of health and health of the future…India is emerging as the nerve center of global health. In 2021 we need to further strengthen this role of India,’’ he said. Health Minister Dr Harsh Vardhan, Gujarat Governor Acharaya Devvrat and Chief Minister Vijay Rupani were present on the occasion. He said India’s contribution for the health solutions of 2021 would be critical for the scaling of solutions. Given the competence of Indian medical professionals and service motivation, along with expertise like mass immunization experience, India would provide smart and affordable solutions to the world. Health startups are integrating health solutions and technology and making health care accessible. The Prime Minister said that as diseases were becoming globalized, it was time for coordinated global response for global health solutions. India had done this as a global player and proved its mettle by adapting, evolving and expanding as per demand.
India moved with the world and did value addition in the collective efforts.
‘’This year showed that when India unites, it can effectively cope up with the most difficult crisis. India is in a much better position as a result of the effective steps and India’s record of saving victims of Corona has been much better than other countries,’’ he said and added that in India every necessary preparation about the vaccine was going on. He said efforts were in the final stages for making the vaccine made in India, rapidly reaching every nook and corner. India’s preparation is in full swing to run the world’s largest immunization campaign. He called for moving forward together to make vaccination successful just the way in 2020 efforts were made to prevent infection. He remembered the efforts of millions of doctors, health workers, scavengers and other frontline corona warriors who had constantly put their lives at stake to protect humanity and lauded the efforts of scientists and all those who provided food to poor in this difficult period with full dedication. Lashing out at the opposition the Prime Minister emphasized that before 2014, different aspects of health sector were working in different directions and approaches.
However, after 2014 health sector had worked holistically and emphasis was on preventive care, while also giving priority to modern treatment facilities. The Government had reduced the cost of treating the poor and at the same time, emphasized on increasing the number of doctors rapidly. He lamented that even after so many decades post independence, only 6 AIIMS were established in the country. During Atal ji’s government in 2003, steps were taken to establish 6 more AIIMS. In the last 6 years, work on 10 new AIIMS had started and many had been inaugurated. Along with AIIMS, 20 Super Specialty Hospitals were also being constructed, he said.. Under the Ayushman Bharat scheme, work to establish about 1.5 million Health and Wellness Centers in remote areas was being undertaken and among those about 50000 centers had already started functioning. About 5000 among those are in Gujarat alone. About 7000 Jan Aushadhi Centers provided medicines at low cost to about 3.5 lakh poor patients.