Telemedicine Project takes off in Himachal Pradesh
New Delhi: Patients in snowbound, remote and backward villages of Himachal Pradesh are getting access to specialised doctor’s services without having to travel long distances for an examination.
Faced with huge challenge of providing healthcare facilities to its people in remote, backward and tribal areas, the state government has started an ambitious telemedicine project to connect patient with physician.
The latest initiative envisages connecting 19 health centres at district, block and tehsil headquarters with IGMC Shimla and PGI Chandigarh through ISDN link to facilitate experts’ advice.
If all goes well with the plan, the facility of telemedicine could be accessed by the people across the state in the next couple of years.
The Department of Information Technology (DIT) and the Department of Health jointly mooted the project keeping in mind acute shortage of doctors in the snow bound areas and tough geographical locations of hill state
Department of Information Technology Shimla with CDAC, Mohali is providing technical support to the project.
Although the project was in pipeline from last three years yet it saw the light during march 2008 with the intervention of present Chief Minister Professor Prem Kumar Dhumal who was committed to provide health care services to all the section of the society in the state using present infrastructure to optimum level through implementation of information technology so as to fulfill the promises made in election manifesto during last assembly elections.
“Under the telemedicine system ZH, Rekong Peo RH, Rampur CH, Rohroo RH, Nahan ,CH, Banjar ZH, DharamshalaCHC, BharmaurCHC, Kyelong CHC, Kyelong CHC, TissaCHC, PoohCHC, Janjehli CHC, Shialai CHC, Sangrah , CH, Karsog RH, ChambaRH, KulluRH, Hamirpur ZH,Mandi have been connected with telemedicine facilities through dedicated ISDN lines with a total cost of rupees 4.51 crore rupees said B .K .Agarwal Himachal I T Secreatary.
He said that Tanda Medical college Kangra will soon be connected with telemedicine facility and the proposed plan has been forwarded to the Health Department to work out modalities for its execution. He told that patients of Kangra , Chamba ,Una and Hamirpur will be benefited by connecting Tanda Medical College through telemedicine facilities and the it will immensely help in conducting online research projects in the state
About operational nitty-gritty of the system, B.K.Agarwal said that the DoIT had a dedicated 2MBPS leased line through BSNL and the link is being utilised for the patients’ direct interface with experts sitting in renowned IGMC Shimla.
Initially, all the hospitals have been linked with the telemedicine division of the state’s premier hospital, Indira Gandhi Medical College Shimla (IGMC) that has been extended to PGI Chandigarh , Mr B.K.agarwal added.
The state Health Department’s efforts to extend the basic Medicare to all over the state has been hit by shortage of doctors and the reluctance of the specialists to serve in remote and tribal areas and the telemedicine project has proved a boon to provide quality health care services to the rural populations of the state .
The state with a population of sixty lacs out of which around 55 lakhs people live in rural areas has the highest percentage of rural population in the country.The task to provide health care facilities in tribal areas is most challenging as snow bound lahaul spiti district which remains cut off from rest of world for six months in a year has 33224 population in 13835 sq kilo metre areas which has density of 2 person per sq kilometre area and it is extremely necessary to adopt telemedicine faculties to stream line health facilities in these areas said B.K. Agarwal secretary I T .
State govt has spent around 85lakhs rupees to provide expert training to all the medical and paramedical staff posted at telemedicine centres and more training courses would be organised for additional staff during the year 2009 he added. He said that at present x-rays, blood samples, MRI and other diagnosis reports are sent from fields to experts through telemedicine facilities and specialist doctors advise the field staff through video conference facilities .The field units are connected with IGMC Shimla and PGI Chandigarh during important conferences to educate them about latest medical innovations and technologies available in the health sectors said Mr B K Agarwal secretary I T Himachal govt.
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