By OUR STAFF REPORTER
RISHIKESH, 10 Jul: AIIMS Rishikesh and the State Tourism Ministry will work together to promote medical tourism in Uttarakhand. After a discussion between the AIIMS Director and the State Tourism Minister on Friday, both sides agreed in principle on this issue.
Tourism Minister Satpal Maharaj and the Director of AIIMS, Professor Ravikant, discussed several points to promote medical tourism in the state. Maharaj said that AIIMS Rishikesh is a prestigious institution in North India. It has established special standards in the field of health and medicine. The joint partnership of AIIMS and Department of Tourism in the field of medical tourism would prove to be path-breaking.
AIIMS Director Professor Ravikant agreed to the proposal and said that, though AIIMS treated patients by the allopathic method, but due to being located in the tourism city of Rishikesh, there was also huge potential for Ayush therapy, here. In such a situation, a holistic package of better treatment could be prepared for patients by combining allopathy and Ayush. The AIIMS director also proposed that, from the scientific point of view, the local food of Uttarakhand such as Manduwa, Jhangora and other herbs should be included in medical tourism by making maximum use of them. Apart from this, he stressed the need to do research on the herbs of Uttarakhand.
The Tourism Minister expressed agreement and said that, in the near future, a joint seminar would be organised on the subject of medical tourism.