I didn't even know India had a Doctors Day (celebrated July 1), but according to this article, the point is to do more than honor physicians.
- Doctors‘ Day is celebrated on July 1 every year. But this year, it is being celebrated a little late in the city. The IMA has decided to implement an ‘Anaemia -free India‘ scheme across the country the whole year. Accordingly, programmes will be held to create awareness among doctors, nurses and sisters, teachers and NGOs on anaemia and its prevention and subsequent treatment.
Dr Appurao Pai spoke on the significance of celebrating Doctors‘ Day. July 1 is Dr B C Roy‘s birth anniversary, which is being celebrated every year. Dr Roy had the unique honour of achieving MRCP(Medicine) and FRCS(Surgery) in England.
People used to call Dr Roy, who used to reach out to patients and treat them as ‘the God who walks‘. Besides, Dr B C Roy was instrumental in establishing the Indian Medical Association and the Indian Medical Council. He later entered politics and became the chief minister of West Bengal, he recounted.
On his birth anniversary the medical fraternity should commit itself once again to render mankind service; the patient, and not money should govern their actions, Dr Pai urged.
We should have a doctors day in the U.S., too, and dedicate a year's worth of CME toward reducing obesity, one of our nation's biggest preventable health problems.
