DEHRADUN: The facility of tele-consultation with doctors of the Government Doon Medical College and Hospital, which was scheduled to start from July 25, is yet to be rolled out. Hospital authorities said that they are still in the “testing phase”.
To make healthcare more accessible to people in the remote corners of the state, medical colleges in Dehradun, Haldwani, Almora and Srinagar had announced last month that they will launch a tele-consultation facility. Over 400 primary and community health centres from all 13 Uttarakhand districts are expected to become part of this network. A command centre has been set up by the National Health Mission, for which a Hyderabad-based tech company has been roped in.
The facility at Doon hospital, which would cover 100 PHCs and CHCs of Garhwal in districts Tehri, Uttarkashi, Haridwar and Dehradun, was expected to start last month but will take another ten days or so, in becoming functional. “Eleven of our departments have enrolled in the programme and will have regular morning OPD hours. Mock calls for almost all of them have been done and the system is in place. We will make it operational for the public soon,” said Dr Sushil Ojha, nodal officer for tele-consultation.
The project for all medical colleges was expected to take off from the ground by this month end but that does not appear to be the situation. Once it starts, Uttarakhand will become 14th state to begin this facility, said officials.
