AGARTALA, July 1 (TIWN): Coming down heavily on thin turnout of doctors in the Doctors' Day function, Chief Minister Manik Sarkar today said only good human being could deliver the best service to the patients as physicians."The low turnout of doctors shows where we have stood today. If you go around the capital town you will find that almost all private clinics are opened and doctors are busy with patients in their private clinics. Now, the time has come to undergo self introspection", he said."If doctors don't turn up to such on Doctors' Day, what is the purpose of organizing such programme? We must self introspect on whether we are discharging our duties or not", he said.

The hall- Muktadhara is half filled with nurses, some  junior doctors but senior doctors remained absent in an important function like Doctors' Day- marking the birth anniversary of Dr. Bidhan Chandra Roy, he said while speaking on the occasion.

On the outbreak of malaria, Sarkar virtually blamed the doctors for not doing enough to avoid such disastrous like situation. "Something might have been gone wrong in healthcare sector which has led to the deaths of so many precious lives in the rural areas. Had the doctors been remained serious against the malaria, the situation would have been different", he said.

Hitting hard on the doctors' attitude, Sarkar said, "If the physicians don't inform the Health Minister about the shortage of infrastructure or medicines, how come the government will take remedial measures? It is the duty of the doctors to keep the Minister information about the shortcomings in the government hospitals or other healthcare institutions".

Health Minister Badal Chowdhury, in his speech, called for self introspection to provide better health services to the people. “Physicians must gain the confidence of the patients to improve the relation between service providers and patients. Dr. Bidhan Chandra Roy is still our role model and doctors must follow his footstep”, he said.

Director Health Services Dr S R Debabarma, former Directors of Health Services Dr. Bikash Roy, Dr. Jiban Nag and Dr. Swapan Das remained present in the function.