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Veröffentlicht: 02. August 2012
Access to basic healthcare for people living in rural and other remote areas of the country has been a major challenge for India for several years now. Both the Central and state governments in the country have failed to provide even primary healthcare services to millions of people as the investments in health infrastructure has been far from satisfactory. Because of this neglect, the number of primary health centres in rural and semi urban areas is grossly inadequate to cater the growing number of patients. Non availability of doctors and paramedical staff to serve even in these limited number of PHCs is another challenge faced the state governments. It is in the background of this scenario, the Central government thought of launching telemedicine project in the country nearly a decade ago. The project, using the space technology was initiated by Indian Space Research Organisation to provide expert medical services to the people in rural and remote areas. Under this project, the hospitals and health centres in remote locations are linked via INSAT satellites with super speciality hospitals at major towns and cities. Such a link brings connectivity between patients at the remote end with specialist doctors for medical consultations and treatment. Telemedicine network helps patients in rural areas and distant locations to avail timely consultations of specialist doctors without going through the ordeal of travelling long distances. The facility enables transmission of patient's medical records including images, besides providing live two-way audio and video link. With the help of this link, a specialist doctor or a paramedic at the patient's end can advise on the course of treatment to be followed.
In a vast country like India, telemedicine network is an ideal healthcare alternative to millions of people living in remote areas. If properly implemented, telemedicine project could save large number of poor people from untimely deaths and sickness. The Central government has already designated Sanjay Gandhi Post Graduate Institute of Medical Sciences, Lucknow as the National Resource Centre and network hub. But, the project has not taken off yet mainly on account lack initiatives on the part of the Union health ministry and most of the state governments. Karnataka and Maharashtra governments have taken some initiative to activate the use of telemedicine in their states by linking some district hospitals. For success of any healthcare programme, cooperation of state governments is extremely important. Currently, only total of 152 hospitals are linked by INSAT with 120 rural or district hospitals and 32 speciality hospitals in major cities. The Parliamentary Committee on health, in its recent report, has criticized the extremely slow pace of progress in implementation of the project. It has found that out of `20 crore allocated for telemedicine project during 2011-12, only `1 crore was released to SGPGI, Lucknow, the National Resource Centre and remaining amount of `19 crore was surrendered. This is a clear indication of health ministry’s gross neglect of this project.
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Autor(en)/Author(s): P A francis
Quelle/Source: pharmabiz, 02.08.2012
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