In his special address, Lt General Bipin Puri, VSM, PHS Director General Armed Forces Medical Service, spoke on the role of armed forces in making public health a priority. He began by saying that the armed forces has been an important pillar in building the nation. He also explained the true meaning of public health and what it means to the armed forces. According to him, public health focusses on health promotion and disease prevention and between this there are activities that are of core relevance for the success of any public health programme. He informed that the armed forces in India is one the largest medical service provider with more than 40,000 hospital beds.
Further, explaining the services that the armed forces offer, he mentioned that there are robust in-built prevention, promotive and rehabilitative mechanisms that the armed forces can provide. He also spoke on the different projects undertaken by them to promote space medicine. The Institute of Aerospace Medicine will be in charge to train people for one of biggest dream project on space medicine.
Drawing inferences from past experiences and learnings from global strategies, LT General Puri informed that Amsterdam has been a pioneer in developing strategies for disease prevention in special settings. Citing this example, he mentioned that the armed forces ensure that constant learning and innovating strategies with techniques, will provide better disease management services.
At the end, he urged all public health stakeholders to focus on preventive medicine and build a system that will ensure that no citizen is deprived of healthcare services at any point of time.
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