Will conduct drives against tobacco for school children says, Dr Sanjay Patil, IMA president, Pune

Dr Patil said, in order to deal with public health, they will launch a programme named — tell me your problem. This will focus on public servants having a direct dialogue with us so that we can help them

Dr Sanjay Patil, an ophthalmologist and chairman of the Hospital Board of India, Pune, took over as the new president of the Indian Medical Association (IMA), Pune chapter, on Monday.

Dr Sanjay Patil, IMA president, Pune. (HT/PHOTO)

What are the issues you will look at during your tenure?

Mainly strengthening current activities, conducting more CPR training workshops for the lay person and educating people about resuscitating people in emergency. Also, coordinating with the government on the ‘end TB’ programme, and health issues related to police officials and bus drivers will be my agenda.

Any specifics related to the bus drivers and police officials?

We had meetings with PMPML authorities and were told that there are as many as 2,500 drivers who have compromised eye sight and this can be dangerous for the public at large. Secondly, many police officials, especially traffic police, are suffering from varicose veins and high blood pressure. So to deal with public health, we are going to launch a programme named — tell me your problem. This will focus on such public servants having a direct dialogue with us so that we can help them.

School health is a major concern. We have observed that many school children are addicted to tobacco chewing and smoking. This will be addressed by our members through awareness drives and regular visits to schools, as their involvement too is important. We want to empower, so we will also be starting an initiative where medical books will be donated to students who cannot afford them, and to libraries of medical colleges, starting with BJ Medical college. Also, currently, we have 4,700 members in IMA which we plan to increase to 10,000 by 2020. Many young doctors who have just completed MBBS also need to join IMA to know more about health care and the developments in medicine. Hence, more young hands are needed to join IMA.

Focussing on women’s health

The Indian Medical Association (IMA) Pune branch, chose a new president, Dr Sanjay Patil, on Monday. Dr Patil takes Dr Padma Iyer’s place, who was also senior vice-president of IMA Maharashtra, during her tenure as Pune IMA president.

Dr Iyer said, “During my tenure, we focussed on women’s health issues and CPR training for the lay person, both of which were hit. The main challenge we faced was the hospital registration issue. At least 400 hospitals licences were up for renewal and the Pune Municipal Corporation (PMC) refused to renew the licences, asking for irrelevant documents . We even went to such an extent that we had to involve the state ministry who ordered the PMC health department to comply with the norms. Later after much intervention and support from the hospital board of India we managed to successfully get licences for the hospitals who were on the waiting list for months.”

Other initiatives Dr Iyer can tick off on her to-do list as IMA president included medico-legal course and diabetology courses that sh; kickstarted, the Pink Health mission, to spread awareness on women’s health; and a workshop on single parenting.