59 Punjab doctors honoured for outstanding service at State ceremony

Chandigarh: Punjab Health Minister Dr Balbir Singh on Thursday honoured 59 top-performing doctors from government and private sectors at a State Level Doctors’ Award Ceremony held to mark National Doctors’ Day. 

The Punjab government have introduced these awards under a first-of-its-kind policy to honour doctors for outstanding services.

Under this new policy, top-performing doctors from the state health department, government medical colleges and the private sector receive a certificate of honour and a memento.

While congratulating all the doctors on Doctors’ Day, Minister Balbir Singh specially highlighted the contribution of Dr Virendra Singh, Director of the Punjab Institute of Liver and Biliary Sciences (PILBS).

“The building, which was originally supposed to be a Community Health Centre, has now housed PILBS, where the first liver transplant has been successfully performed,” he said, while adding that the Institute is also in the process of performing a kidney transplant very soon, reports PTI.

The minister also applauded Dr Ashish Gulia, Director of Homi Bhabha Cancer Hospital, for taking cancer care to a higher level in the state and for his dedicated work on the prevention of cancer by focusing on early diagnosis.

Further, the minister acclaimed renowned Cardiologist Dr Bishav Mohan and Neurologist Dr Jeyaraj D Pandian for successfully running the hub-and-spoke-based projects, STEMI and STROKE, respectively, which have been saving thousands of lives across Punjab.

The Punjab STEMI Project, based on the Hub and Spoke model, aims to provide timely and effective treatment for STEMI (heart attack) patients, with a primary focus on thrombolysis.

As part of the life-saving initiative, the Tenecteplase injection, which helps to dissolve blood clots in the heart and normally costs between Rs 25,000 and Rs 35,000, is being administered completely free of cost to patients.

Similarly, the Punjab Stroke Project aims to provide free mechanical thrombectomy to stroke patients suffering from ischemic stroke. This project is also based on the Hub and Spoke model, utilising CMC Ludhiana as the central hub and three district hospitals as spokes.

Lauding the entire medical fraternity during the event, Singh termed doctors as global role models.

He cited that no matter what adversity strikes, whether it’s floods, COVID-19, or any other disaster, doctors always remain at the frontline to serve the people. He also thanked doctors for dealing with every patient with love and care, even during difficult times like COVID-19.

The minister stated that the government has been working hard to ensure quality healthcare at government health facilities is on par with private hospitals, reiterating that quality healthcare is a fundamental right of the economically weaker section as well.