Mumbai: Prime Minister Narendra Modi yesterday underlined the need to give importance to preventive health care with simple habits like washing hands among children to reduce the burden on the nation’s health care systems.
Inaugurating the swank renovated Sir H N Reliance Foundation Hospital in south Mumbai here, Modi said treating illness and convalescence were expensive but preventive methods were very cheap. “For instance, if we can provide clean pure drinking water, a majority of health problems can be solved.
“After the Sabarmati river was revived with water from the Narmada Dam around 10 years ago, there has not been an outbreak of a single (water-borne disease) epidemic in the city (Ahmedabad). The people have got clean water and the civic body has made savings of Rs15 crore in bills,” Modi said.
Modi cited examples to show how a simple habit like washing hands before meals among children can prevent many diseases. He touched upon the need to manufacture essential medical equipment in India with foreign investment to bring down the cost.
Earlier, the prime minister inaugurated the hospital, now in its 90th year, located in south Mumbai, which has been re-built by Reliance Foundation, led by its chairperson Nita Ambani, into a modern 19-storey tower with two heritage wings. Nita Ambani termed it “a historic day” in the life of the hospital which was re-dedicated to the people of Mumbai.
Founded in 1925 as Mumbai’s first general hospital, the 345-bed, multi-specialty tertiary care hospital has six thrust areas: Cardiac sciences, nephro-urology, neuro sciences, oncology, orthopaedics and spine, and women and child health. Mukesh Ambani, his wife Nita and other family members welcomed Modi near the entrance to the hospital, along with Maharashtra Governor C V Rao. IANS
