‘Health info system by early next year’
The govt is making sure that people don’t have to make the rounds of hospitals... e-cards will be given door-to-door and will contain the cardholder’s medical history.
Delhi chief minister
NEW DELHI: Chief minister Arvind Kejriwal on Thursday said that his government’s ambitious project to create a cloud-based health information management system (HIMS) for Delhi residents is likely to be rolled out early next year.
Kejriwal on Thursday chaired a review meeting on the progress of the project, which was also attended by health minister Satyendar Jain.
After the meeting, his office issued a statement, “The worldclass health information management system (HIMS) is all set to be implemented by the beginning of next year. The department has completed the vendor selection and bidding process and is working on war footing to streamline the project and place it in front of the cabinet. As part of the project, health cards will be assigned to each citizen, which will be a repository of medical information. Doctors will be able to see patient’s medical history using the card and the patients will be able to make appointments from home.”
The HIMS project envisages digital health cards for each patient — essentially be a QR code-based system — that will keep a record of details such as health checkups, follow-ups, surgeries, medications and vaccinations.
The system is also supposed to include a mobile phone app as well as a 24x7 call centre to help patients with health-related information, fix consultations and offer other assistance, senior government officials said.
The project was earlier slated to be launched this month but was delayed on account of the Covid-19 pandemic, especially the deadly second wave that Delhi saw in April, which left the health-care infrastructure overwhelmed, officials said.
“Health department officers presented a detailed project report to the CM... The project will be placed before the cabinet soon,” said the statement.
The officials also told Kejriwal and Jain that the first phase of the project will be completed by the end of the year and the implementation can happen by the beginning of next year.
In its first phase, the project is likely to cover all Delhi government hospitals and dispensaries. Central government hospitals and private hospitals are likely to be included in subsequent phases, said senior government officials.
“The government is making sure that people don’t have to make the rounds of hospitals to get their e-health cards made. The cards will be distributed through a door-to-door campaign and will contain the entire medical history of the cardholder. They will be able to get treated at any hospital on the HIMS. After its implementation, Delhi will become the only state in the country to have a cloudbased health management system. At present, such a system is available in some developed countries like Sweden, Uganda and Germany,” Kejriwal said.
300 ICU BEDS READY AT NIRANKARI GROUND
Jain said on Thursday that a Covid-19 care centre with 800 oxygen beds and 300 intensive care unit (ICU) beds is ready at the Nirankari ground in north Delhi’s Burari.
The centre, which also has tele-counselling facility, is part of the government’s larger plan to manage potential waves of the pandemic in the future.