Orthopaedic Association of SAARC Countries (OASAC), a distinguished forum of orthopaedic surgeons of India, Bangladesh, Pakistan, Sri Lanka, Bhutan, Nepal, Maldives and Afghanistan, invited me to inaugurate its 8th biennial conference in Agra on Tuesday, September 7. It was a pleasant experience for me to be among such dedicated colleague medicos, each of them a legend in his or her own right. When my good friend and president elect of OASAC, Dr D.K. Taneja, originally came to meet me with the invitation to be there for the conference, I was reluctant because of the pressure of other appointments. But when Dr Taneja insisted saying that the pride of the nation would be eroded if a SAARC-connected event is not inaugurated by a cabinet minister of the government of India. So, to cut a long story short, I agreed to go to Agra for the occasion. While I was awaiting my turn to speak, I heard my hosts articulate the need for wholesome participation by every stakeholder in the health system in a massive programme of preventive and promotive health. This considerably enthused me. In my speech, I urged the delegates to come up with out-of-the-box approaches to ensuring preventive health approaches towards ensuring that the young generation grows up with stronger bones and joints. A social movement around health needs to be devised. Every citizen must be encouraged to feel as a unit of the health system. If each and every body can be kept healthy through awareness generation on good lifestyles, then the country’s health profile would be transformed from its present negative image. The new National Health Policy, which I am committed to develop, will address the preventive and promotive aspects of health. OASAC members agreed to plunge themselves into the task of spreading awareness on qualitative improvement of their lifestyles based on health awareness. OASAC used the occasion to honour some reputed orthopaedic surgeons of India. The lifetime achievement award went to Dr Salil Bhattacharya, who is literally the grand old man of the profession. At 90, he is full of vigour and still practices out of a clinic in Kolkata. Dr C.S. Ranawat, another famous orthopaedic surgeon from the United States, was also felicitated. I had good interaction with Dr P.S. Maini, one of the orginal mooters of the idea to form OASAC. A distinguished faculty comprising Dr Ranawat, Dr Dilip Pal, Dr P.S Maini, Dr A. Pervez of Pakistan and Dr K.H.A. Rizvi from Bangladesh was present. Dr Ananda Parara (the outgoing president), Dr Nasser Akhtar from Maldives, Dr K.P. Shrivastava and Dr Anoop Khare were some of the distinguished doctors present on the occasion. I thank all my hosts and organisers of the event for giving me the honour of making me a part of it. I look forward to another opportunity to be amongst them.
Posted on: Fri, 10 Oct 2014 05:33:49 +0000
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