Chandigarh
26 August 2018
DIVYA AZAD
A workshop was organized at Saraswati group of colleges, Gharuan near Chandigarh under the aegis of SPEAK India ‘the society for promotion of Ethical and affordable health Care’. Dr. R.Kumar senior eye specialist and President of SPEAK India was the principal speaker. Dr Shalender Bhardwaj Principal of Ayurvedic college and Dr. Rajesh Tayal were the other speakers. In his address, Dr R Kumar dwelt on the mental state of medicalization of the Indian masses. “The focus has to shift from the care of the sick to health preservation’, he emphasized. ‘We do not have to be treatment minded but we must be health minded’, he added.
He advocated teaching ethics at every stage of education career. Dr Kumar appealed to Saraswati group to introduce a 4 years course BSc in health and wellness, producing health guides. “The model I suggest is that a course for creating health guides be implemented across the country. A guide will look after the health of 500 persons in an area and will not allow them to fall sick. He will not be called a doctor and will not prescribe any medicine. This will create millions of jobs, increase productivity, improve economy and reduce national expense on disease treatment. ” Said Dr R Kumar.
Giving specific examples of self medication and tests on self prescription he enumerated perils of ‘maximum medicine and minimum health’. He underlined that the Lab test packages being promoted these days are a big hoax that can convert a normal person into a patient by misleading him through variation in values from normal. People need to think before going to a hospital and search cause of their sickness in things like Smartphone addiction, dehydration, sleep deprivation, anemia, lack of exercise, over work and over ambition, lack of sunlight and inadequate ventilation that often lead to stress, sadness and fatigue. He specially castigated junk foods, white poison foods, obesity and its consequences.
Sh Sandeep Garg a social activist chaired the workshop.
