PGI wins health excellence award

THE POSTGRADUATE Institute of Medical Education and Research has won the health excellence award at the World Hospital Congress in Taiwan for its initiative to promote eye donation, said PGI on Thursday. A PGI statement said with 131 entries from 90 organisations in 24 countries eyeing top honours, PGI excelled as its initiative to boost eye donation was conferred with the Health Excellence Award for Leadership and Management in Healthcare at the 41st World Hospital Congress organised by the International Hospital Federation in Taiwan.

Professor A K Gupta received this prestigious award on behalf of PGIMER at an impressive and high-profile award ceremony that concluded in Taipei on Wednesday evening, said offcials.

The statement, quoting (Dr) A K Gupta, Medical Superintendent-cum-Head Department of Hospital Administration, PGIMER, as saying that “the testimony to the success of this intervention can be gauged from the fact that there has been a whopping 93 per cent tangible increase in the rate of eye donation at the institute in the post-intervention phase, which was launched in 2014”.

The statement added, “It is a huge satisfaction that the increase in eye donation has not only given the ‘gift of sight’ to a significantly much higher number of corneal blind patients, but also intangibly helped in overcoming earlier resistance of all cadres of hospital staff towards this noble cause. This enthusiasm has spilled over into the cadaver donation programme helping PGI run one of the most successful transplantation programmes in the country.”