Rohit Shishodia
Doctors have said that in the recently given interview to a news agency Prime Minister Narendra Modi should have touched upon various health issues such as violence against the doctors and air pollution that is badly affecting the health of the people.

Dr KK Aggarwal, President, Heart Care Foundation of India, has said that it would have been indeed heartening to know his views also on violence against doctors and how his government plans to tackle the escalating incidents of violence against doctors across the country.

“He also spoke about 'economic health' but not 'health', despite several prevailing health issues in the country,” added Dr Aggarwal.  

The doctors said that air pollution has become a major public health problem and there seems to be no respite from it.

“Evidence has documented an association between air pollution and many acute health events such as heart attack, stroke, acute asthma and chronic diseases such as cancer, heart disease, lung diseases (asthma, COPD). But neither harm prevention nor harm reduction due to pollution was addressed by the Prime Minister,” said Dr Aggarwal.

A government doctor in Delhi who did not wish to be named said that young doctors are assaulted everyday by relatives of patients due to lack of healthcare facilities such as shortage of medicines and doctors.

“The Prime Minister should have spoken about this issue and give suggestions about how this issue can be tackled. It gets highlighted when the PM speaks on the issue,” added the doctor.