UP plans 500 telemedicine centres in rural areas

LUCKNOW: The state health and family welfare department is planning to tackle the doctors’ crisis in rural areas through technology.

It plans to set up a telemedicine and diagnostic centres at the primary health centres across state.

Under the plan, instead of medical practitioners, the centres will have a machine that will examine patients and send the report to a doctor seated at a hospital in the city.

On the basis of the report, the doctor will prescribe the medicine and the machine will dispense the recommended medicines to patients.

Principal secretary, health and family welfare, Prashant Trivedi said the centres will run by nurses and ANMs.

“When a patient suffering from common diseases visits the primary health centres, the nurses will collect the blood sample and put it in the testing kit and feed the symptoms of the disease. The machine will immediately diagnose the disease and send the report to the doctor connected through Internet,” said an official.

“After going through the report, the doctor will prescribe the medicine and send it to the centre. Once the machine receives the prescription it will vend the set of medicines, which can be collected by the patient,” said the official.

The department plans to set up 500 such centres at equal number of PHCs.

The tenders will be floated according to the Result Framework Document of the Ministry of Health and Family Welfare.

Director, UP National Health Mission (NHM), Pankaj Kumar said a team of NHM had recently visited Odisha to study the telemedicine model.

The telemedicine centres developed by Odisha Trust of Technical Education and Training (OTTET) in PPP mode has been successfully providing and improving healthcare in rural areas of the state.

“Not only it reduces the cost and out of pocket expenses of patients but also provide quality health service to the people residing in far flung areas,” he said.

The NHM will soon send a proposal to the central government for setting up of telemedicine and diagnostic centres in UP.

After the centre nod, the work will start, he said.

“Around 7,000 vacant posts of doctors are hampering the working in the health centres and hospitals across the state. Out of 18,382 sanctioned posts, only 11,034 government doctors are working. The telemedicine and diagnostic centres will cater to the need of patients in rural areas where the shortage is acute,” said a health department officer.

The health department has already decided to post 2000 AYUSH (Ayurveda, Yoga and Naturopathy, Unani, Siddha and Homeopathy) doctors in PHCs.

“It will not only increase the strength of doctors in PHCs but will help patients get benefit of various medical practices under one roof,” he said.