PGI a victim of its own popularity: Prof Jagat Ram

Naina Mishra

Tribune News Service

Chandigarh, November 1

From focussing more on research and patents to pressing upon improving healthcare infrastructure in neighbouring states to minimise patient load, former Director of PGI Prof Jagat Ram today listed a slew of measures to help the institute outgrow AIIMS, New Delhi, and emerge as country’s premier healthcare provider.

“There are many areas in the PGI that require improvement. To begin with, institute needs to manage the huge rush of patients in medical and surgical emergency,” said Prof Jagat Ram.

“There is 300 per cent more patient load at any given time at the PGI. We are victim of our own popularity. People trust the expertise of the institute and we have patients from all quarters - J&K, Himachal, Punjab, Uttarakhand, parts of Uttar Pradesh and Rajasthan,” he said.

“I have found a solution to cater to this problem, which is a long term and an intermediate solution. The short term solution is shifting the screening OPD to the Sarangpur centre,” he said.

“We had also planned to shift 500 bedded emergency trauma centre to Sarangpur so that the focus remains on serious medical emergencies,” Prof Jagat Ram added.

He, however, said the long-term solution to the problem would be improving the infrastructure in neighbouring states. “The neighbouring states of Chandigarh need to strengthen their area in neurosurgery, tumor cases, cardio surgery and trauma. A majority of patients are referred for these facilities from other states. If the health infrastructure of other states improves, the PGI will not get choked with patients,” he pointed out.

Another area that PGI can improve upon is in the field of research and academics. “We should always strive to be No. 1 in the country. To do so, we need to increase the number of patents and innovations,” said the veteran. “We are always occupied with patient care and academics, so much so, that we hardly get time for research. There should be equal distribution of time for patient care, academic teaching and research…”

In a message for the incumbent director, Prof Ram said: “A Director should be competent enough to maintain harmony among all the workers. Success of any institute depends on teamwork. Any individual excellence will not work. A Director should handle all the situations without any bias.”

Talking about his future, Prof Ram said: “I worked at the PGI for 42 years and I have a habit of waking up early in the morning these days due to jetlag. In days to come, I will decide where to join as I have many offers. I will remain in touch with ophthalmology specialisation and also do some charity work.”

Prof Jagat Ram retired from service on October 31.

Under his leadership, PGI was consistently ranked as the second-best medical institute of the country after AIIMS, New Delhi.

The biggest challenge Prof Ram faced during his tenure was perhaps the management of Covid-19 pandemic. He took the tough call of scaling down the physical OPD services for general patients.

The PGI also mentored over 70 labs from all over north India and served as the referral centre for moderate-severe Covid cases from the neighboring states.