Bhubaneswar: Vice-President M. Venkaiah Naidu on Saturday stressed on quality health care services for rural people of India and said every doctor should serve at least three years in those areas before a promotion.
Naidu, who was addressing the first convocation of the All India Institute of Medical Sciences (AIIMS) here, said the state and central governments should come up with a policy to make it mandatory for doctors to serve three years in rural areas.
In his half-hour speech, Naidu stressed on the need to increase the number of medical colleges, adding that medical education curriculum had to be constantly updated by including the latest developments and treatment methods.
He also asked young doctors to interact with the patients. "Doctors must be trained to be sensitive towards the sufferings of patients and their families. They should provide the healing touch with good communication. There can be no greater service than restoring fellow human beings to good health," he said.
The vice-president also laid the foundation stone of the burn unit and the oxygen plant at the hospital.
He presented 23 gold medals to meritorious students for their academic excellence. Fifty MBBS and 56 BSc (nursing) students got their degrees during Saturday's convocation.
Anagha Menon bagged the gold medal for the best outgoing student of the 2012 MBBS batch, while Shivani and Simran Kaur were tied for best outgoing students for the 2013 BSc (nursing) batch.
Menon bagged the highest number of gold medals with 11 of the 23.
Union health and family welfare minister J.P. Nadda, who awarded the degrees to the graduating students, said AIIMS, Bhubaneswar, had treated over 5 lakh patients last year.
"The institute will grow further only with the help of the young doctors," he said.
Union petroleum and natural gas, and skill development minister Dharmendra Pradhan, who was also present at the convocation ceremony, said the institute was growing fast and added that he hoped rare surgeries that are done at AIIMS, New Delhi, would be done at the Bhubaneswar facility as well.
AIIMS, Bhubaneswar, became the first new AIIMS of the other six to hold a convocation ceremony.
"We are glad that our students are climbing the ladder of achievements. Many of our students have already joined postgraduate courses in reputable institutes of the country," said AIIMS director Gitanjali Batmanabane.
