President calls upon medical fraternity to prevent female foeticide

NEW DELHI - President Pratibha Devisingh Patil on Friday called upon the medial fraternity to prevent female foeticide.

Addressing the 64th National Conference of India Radiology and Imaging Association here, President Patil urged doctors to prevent diagnostic tests misused for the purpose of pre-natal gender determination.

“The laws in the country prohibit medical practitioners in disclosing the gender of the foetus. This is not only illegal, but socially immoral and detrimental to the society,” she said.

The President further said: “It is a task in which the government, the medical fraternity, the private sectors and voluntary organizations will have to work together in partnership. I call upon all stakeholders to look at ways delivering healthcare more effectively, efficiently, equitably and in cost-effective manner.”

President Patil said that medical care should be accessible and affordable, especially for the underprivileged and marginalised sections of the society, and in particular for women and children.

“In today’s era of ICT (Information and Communication Technologies), we should also look at using technology in a vision of health for all. Technology plus initiatives like in medicine should be employed and broaden the richness of healthcare,” she added.

Meanwhile, Minister of State for Health and Family Welfare Dinesh Trivedi speaking on the occasion called upon the practitioners to exercise due caution in utilization of medical imaging examinations and not expose patients to unnecessary radiation.

Trivedi said that while technology is extremely useful and is reducing suffering, improving quality of life and increasing healthy lifespan, it is important for doctors to evaluate critically, not only the effectiveness, but also the cost-effectiveness and influence on quality of life of these new technologies.

“Imaging professionals must work to reduce the radiation dose as much as reasonably achievable, to seek accreditation of imaging facilities with careful attention to radiation dose monitoring and control, and to participate in dose registries that will allow imaging practitioners to benchmark their dose levels with peer institutions,” said Trivedi.

“Radiological and Imaging Association could also think about the development of an interactive portal which answers common patient questions about risks and benefits of medical imaging procedures, he added.

The Minister also stated that healthcare industry is one of the fastest growing industries in India and the government is trying to incentivize organisations to setup new hospitals in small towns and rural areas.

“A model of Apublic-private-partnership with the help of the Indian Railways is also being developed to involve private players in this huge task’, he elaborated.

The National Conference of the Indian Radiological and Imaging Association is being held in New Delhi after a gap of 25years.

Global leaders from the field of radiology are assembled here to deliberate on the newer developments in the subject. (ANI)