BHUBANESWAR: Chief Minister Naveen Patnaik on Friday advised the newly-recruited doctors to work on the mission ‘every life is important to build ‘Sustha Odisha, Sukhi Odisha’ (Healthy Odisha, Happy Odisha). The State government inducted 358 allopathic, 116 homoeopathic medical officers and 36 homoeopathic faculty. Congratulating the new recruits, the CM hoped the appointment of such a large number of medical officers will make the healthcare system more robust and effective.
“The mission has been the guiding principle of the Odisha government as our objective is to provide affordable healthcare to all 4.5 crore people of the State by bringing down the out-of-pocket expenses,” he said. Naveen said the size of the budget of the Health Department is increasing over the years to provide universal access to quality healthcare services. The budget provision doubled in the last three years - from `6,800 crores in 2019-20 to over `12,000 crores in 2022-23. This is more than six per cent of the State Plan, he said.
Highlighting the 5T initiative of the government, he said as people are the soul of democracy, every public servant is mandated to serve them with dignity. Health Minister Naba Kishore Das highlighted the State’s success in Covid management and said it has brought Odisha an international reputation. He asked the doctors to work with commitment and dedication.
Citing that people in rural areas have high expectations from doctors, Chief Secretary Suresh Chandra Mahapatra advised the new recruits to the expectations of their performance. Secretary to CM’s Transformation Initiative (5T) VK Pandian interacted with the doctors and asked them to follow absolute transparency while serving people.“Be it food security or disaster management, Odisha has shown the world how it’s working to save the life of people,” he said.