The Union Health and Family Welfare Minister, Ghulam Nabi Azad, on Saturday announced setting up of Regional Geriatric Centre at Sher-e- Kashmir Institute of Medical Sciences (SKIMS) Soura here and seven other medical institutions across the country.
While speaking on the occasion of the International Day of Senior Citizens at All India Medical Institute of Medical Sciences (AIIMS) in New Delhi Azad said, “Geriatrics is a specialty that needs help and support of the medical fraternity to achieve its full potential.”
He dedicated the geriatric OPD at AIIMS New Delhi to the National Programme for Health Care of Elderly (NPHCE). “On this day, let us resolve to make every effort to provide better health care to our elderly to ensure that they remain active members of our society. This is the occasion to acknowledge the contribution of the elderly in shaping today’s world. We should pay our tribute by committing ourselves to the cause of healthy ageing,” Azad said.
The Minister said that Government of India had initiated a national programme in the name of “National Programme for Health Care of Elderly” which is being initially implemented in 100 most backward and remote districts of the country with poor health indicators, covering 21 states.
Azad also launched the NPHCE guidelines and said that the programme would be extended to all the 640 districts of the country over the 12th plan period.
He said during last few decades life expectancy has increased substantially and, consequent to this, the population of senior citizens has increased four fold since 1951. The number of senior citizens above the age of 60 was 76.6 million as per the Census 2001 which constituted about 7.5 % of the total population. At this rate of increase, it is projected to become 173 million by 2026.
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