Jana Aushadhi generic medical shops should be run by Red Cross volunteers - Governor Narasimhan

Hyderabad, June 14:    Governor of AP & Telangana, Sri E.S.L. Narasimhan urged the Red Cross Society organisers to take over Jana aushadhi Generic Medical shops being run in Govt Hospitals, under the national programme and help the needy patients to have access to affordable medicines. Speaking on the occasion of presentation of awards to Blood donation motivators, donors, organisers of blood donation camps at Sanskruthi Raj Bhavan Community Hall, Hyderabad, on Thursday on the occasion of World Blood Donors Day, the Governor said by donating blood and motivating to donate blood they rendered greatest service to the humanity at large. Governor said blood is thicker than water and the donors and motivators provide a link between the human beings, of the donors and the recipients.  He said by donating blood and by motivating people to donate blood, peace, love and affection is spread among all the people.

Governor said Indian Red Cross Society is doing yeoman service in the states of Andhra Pradesh and Telangana and both the state chapters have spread their wings wider in helping needy people. Governor said the need of the hour is healthcare and education about healthcare. He said the Red Cross Society does many other activities like relief activities during disasters, ambulance service, maintenance of old age homes, dementia centres and runs a parallel healthcare sector in the country. He urged the Red Cross Society to educate people about healthcare and help people in detection of ailments at initial stage itself as prevention is better than cure. Volunteers should visit villages and conduct regular health screening camps, said the Governor.

Governor also said that the Red Cross society volunteers should spread the message about the Swachatha Abhiyan, under which volunteers are given certificates for 100 hours of voluntary Internship. Governor said the volunteers of Red Cross Society should visit hospitals at least once in a month and care for the patients and give them a word of encouragement, which he said will be more effective than medicine. Governor agreed with the suggestion made by B.V. Papa Rao, Chairman of Telangana Chapter of Indian Red Cross Society that standard operating procedure should be developed in collection, storage and disbursal of blood at the blood banks maintained by the Red Cross Society, so that same quality is maintained across all Centres.  Governor said the Red Cross volunteers should function as parallel auxiliary healthcare professionals and support the government health care initiatives as government alone cannot provide the required healthcare services to all needy people. He said people should remember that health is wealth and wealth is not health.

Smt. Rachel Chatterjee, Chairperson, Indian Red Cross Society, Andhra Pradesh Chapter, B.V. Papa Rao, Chairman, Indian Red Cross Society, Telangana Chapter, Harpreet Singh, Principal Secretary to Governor and Vice Chairman of Indian Red Cross Society, AP & Telangana Chapters, have attended the programme.

Earlier, Governor presented awards to Dharmareddy, Srinivas Gowd, MLAs, who motivated and mobilised large number of donors by organising blood donation camps. Awards were also presented to N. Satyanarayana, Kamareddy Collector, B. Lakshmikantham, Krishna Collector, Heads of IT and ITES companies, banks and individuals for their achievements in blood donation under various categories.

-Press note