From literally walking 9 kms a day to reach his school to being awarded with 35 national and international awards, including the prestigious Padma Shri for his trailblazing work in the world of cataract surgery & now superannuating as Director of the premier institute, Prof. Jagat Ram’s journey is incredibly inspiring!
City Darpan Bureau, Chandigarh, October 30 : An illustrious inning spanning over 42 years comes to an end as Prof. Jagat Ram today retired as the Director of the Post Graduate Institute of Medical Education & Research (PGIMER) here after serving a tenure of four years and seven months as Director and having spent 38 years in various other capacities at this prestigious institute.
In his 55-month tenure as Director, Prof. Jagat Ram contributed immensely to this institute of national reckoning taking it to new heights be it in patient care, research or teaching.
Commending Prof. Jagat Ram for his unparalleled accomplishments, Prof. G.D.Puri, Dean (Academics) PGIMER stated "Known for his humility and amiability, Prof. Jagat Ram has been a silent administrator, a man of great resilience and boundless energy who always managed to keep his calm even in toughest of circumstances. He has never flinched under any pressure, rather that got the best out of him.”
Shri Kumar Gaurav Dhawan, Deputy Director (Administration) PGIMER said, "Prof. Jagat Ram maintained a very cordial and constructive relationship with senior administrators, heads of departments, faculty and other officials here in the institute. Today, its an acknowledged fact that PGIMER is on a high growth trajectory with one of the largest pool of medical talent capable of matching the best in the world,"
The unprecedented human tragedy of Covid 19 displayed how under the dynamic leadership of Prof. Jagat Ram, PGIMER rose to the occasion and demonstrated its extraordinary capacity for hard work, team spirit and mentor ship for this part of the country as all the teams from different specialties in PGIMER worked in tandem to face this human catastrophe.
Besides well managing the Covid 19 challenge, Prof. Jagat Ram is also credited with accomplishing many milestones during his headship as under the NIRF rankings, PGIMER has been the second-best medical institution in the country for four years successively. In Cadaveric Organ Donation, PGIMER has been ranked the ‘Best Hospital’ for the last four years in a row in the country. As far as cleanliness is concerned, PGIMER is among the best in the country and Kayakalp awards for the institute during his tenure validate the same.
Other commendable initiatives undertaken during Prof. Jagat Ram’s sojourn with PGIMER as Director include coming up with a new Screening OPD, on 50.76 acres of land in Sarangpur (very close to the existing PGI), near Chandigarh to help manage the mammoth rush of 3 million patients annually (the figure pertain to before COVID-19 pandemic) Besides screening OPD, there is a 500 bedded trauma centre as well as a big Oncology centre with all kinds of services in it- including medical oncology, surgical oncology, radiotherapy and re-habilitation is also being developed.
Further, to provide the most cost-effective and best tertiary care services, two more centres, the Neurosciences centre and a ‘mother and child’ care 300 bedded centre are being built at a fast pace in the existing campus. Additionally, a geriatric centre to take care of the health of older people better is also in the pipeline.
From literally walking nine kilometres a day to reach his school in Rajgarh in Sirmour district of Himachal Pradesh back in 1961, to climbing stairs of a stage to receive ‘Oscar in Pediatric Ophthalmology’ in Barcelona in 2015 and ‘Best of the Best Award’ in San Francisco in 2013 and again at New Orleans in 2016 for his trailblazing work in the world of cataract surgery and then being awarded the prestigious Padma Shri in 2018-19 by the President of India for his significant contributions in the medicine, Prof. Jagat Ram’s journey has been incredibly inspiring!
Joining PGIMER in the Department of Ophthalmology in 1979 as resident doctor to becoming a prominent faculty in 1994, head of the department in 2015 and finally the director of PGIMER in March 2017, Dr Ram has accomplished several exemplary feats in his 42-year-long sojourn with the institute which include his visit to USA for a World Health Organisation (WHO) fellowship in advanced phacoemulsification in 1993 and then award of a second fellowship in 1998 in Pediatric Cataract surgery.
Then, from 2003 to 2005, Dr Ram was also deputed by the Ministry of External Affairs at the Republic of Seychelles, as a phacoemulsification practitioner. It was these experiences that served an eye-opener for Prof. Ram and helped him carve his career in a bigger and better direction.
In 1994, Dr Jagat Ram introduced the technique of phacoemulsification by replacing the replaced the older method of extracapsular cataract extraction (ECCE), while working at PGIMER as a faculty member. Almost a year later, he began to use the method to operate patients suffering from cataract blindness and was able to successfully restore their vision. In the last 4 decades, Dr Ram has successfully conducted over 90,000 cataract surgeries in adult patients and over 10,000 surgical procedures on children. He has also offered free eye-care services in over 130 relief and screening camps in rural areas.
An ardent lover of nature photography and fond of travelling, Prof. Jagat Ram has least 20,000 photos of birds and nature in his phone. Not just nature photography, he likes to do the same in his profession also related to eye-surgeries and ophthalmology.
Expressing his deep gratitude to PGIMER for his professional as well as personal growth, Prof. Jagat Ram stated as he bid adieu to the institute, “This is an institute of national importance, and there is a certain depth of dedication required to be here. So one must not compromise on ethics at all.”
“Also, teamwork is extremely important. Individual achievement does not make much sense till it is teamwork and the whole team is excelling. Only then the institute excels, ” signs off Prof. Jagat Ram leaving a rich legacy to imbibe and follow.
In the meantime Prof. Surjit Singh, Head, Department of Pediatrics, PGIMER has been given the the officiating charge for the post of the Director,PGIMER, Chandigarh w.e.f. 01.11.2021 under Rule 7(4) of the PGIMER,Chandigarh, Rules, 1967, on completion of the term of Prof. Jagat Ram, for a period of six months or till such time the regular Director is appointed, whichever is earlier.