The Vice President of India, M. Venkaiah Naidu told graduating doctors that quality and compassion as well as ethics and equity should be the guiding principles that light their path in life. He was addressing the 9th Annual Convocation of the Jawaharlal Institute of Postgraduate Medical Education & Research (JIPMER), in Puducherry today. JIPMER is a 200 year centre of excellence in medical education and patient care and is among the top five medical schools in India.The Vice President appreciated the institution for managing a hospital that caters to the poorest of poor where 90% of the treatment is totally free. He added that this 6th best hospital in the country would be a great boon to the poor people of the region including those from neighboring states. He also congratulated the institution for the large number of innovations they have initiated in Tele-Medicine and teleconferencing services, connecting themselves to almost all medical colleges in India and the BIMSTEC Countries.The Vice President said that JIPMER should aspire to become a model for health systems in India through innovations in education, patient-oriented research and service excellence, in tune with their mission statement which speaks about compassion, ethics and selfless service. He observed that the frontiers of medicine were expanding continuously and rapidly.
Hence the graduates should be always open to new learning and be active researchers, innovators and thinkers in addition to being lifelong students of their chosen disciplines.The Vice President lauded the yeoman service for the treatment of cancer done by the Regional Cancer Centre which provided expensive treatments like bone marrow transplantation and Rapid Arc High Technology totally free of cost. Appreciating the good work done by the alumni of JIPMER, he urged them to serve their alma mater and the patients it cared for.Describing the transformative phase India is going through, the Vice President suggested that we should focus more and more on expanding basic services, including health care, to all our citizens. He added that forging public private partnerships actively could help accelerate the progress. Reminding the graduates that the healthcare needs of our vast and diverse population were huge, he requested them to never compromise when it comes to making affordable and quality healthcare accessible to all.Wishing the graduating students, the faculty and the institution the very best, the Vice President said that the young doctors had the knowledge and skills needed to transform human lives, having been mentored in a great institution like JIPMER. He reminded them to always have a ready smile for the sick and infirm who would be looking for a smile and a kind word. He added that doctors could bring hope to the most desperate. The Lt. Governor of Puducherry, Dr. Kiran Bedi, the Chief Minister of Puducherry, Shri. V. Narayanasamy, the Union Minister for Health & Family Welfare, Shri J.P. Nadda, the Minister for Health, Puducherry, Shri. Malladi Krishna Rao, the Leader of Opposition, Puducherry Legislative Assembly, Shri N. Rangasamy, doctors and medical students and their parents were present on the occasion.