Prime Minister Narendra Modi on October 11 said Gujarat was afflicted by many diseases two decades ago, and his government carried out a "surgery" to change the old system.
Launching healthcare facilities worth ₹1,275 crore at the Civil Hospital (Asarwa) in Ahmedabad, he also said that during the G20 summit he gave a call for 'One Earth, One Health' as he was pained to see that not a single dose of COVID-19 vaccines was available in some countries while in other countries people received four or five doses.
“Like one cures people of disease, we are carrying out this ‘Mukti Yagna’ to cure the State of many diseases. And we keep trying our best to cure it,” he said.
To improve the healthcare systems of Gujarat, his government used three things which doctors prescribe, namely, medicine, surgery and care, the PM said.
"Twenty or twenty-five years ago many diseases had afflicted Gujarat," he said, listing problems such as backwardness in healthcare, lack of electricity, lack of water, misgovernance and poor law and order situation.
At the root of all these diseases was "the biggest disease" which was "politics of vote-bank", he said.
"Surgery means carrying out a change in the old system. My way of surgery is taking scissors to inaction, sloppiness and corruption. Then comes medicine, which means making new efforts every day to develop new systems, human resources, infrastructure, innovation, and building new hospitals. And the third is care, which is the most important part of improving Gujarat's health sector," the prime minister said.
His government worked with care and sensitivity, said Mr. Modi who had been the chief minister of the State four times.
"We went among people, shared their problems, and not just that...I can say with humility that Gujarat was the first State [to do so] when we set up health camps for not just humans but also for animals," he said.
