In a bid to provide health services at doorsteps, telemedicine facilities were on Thursday inaugurated at the MKCG Medical College and Hospital, City Hospital in Berhampur and the Aska community health centre by Health Minister Damodar Rout. The facilities will run on public-private partnership mode.
Though telemedicine service was being provided at MKCG Medical for the last five years, it was confined only to doctors who were using it to consult experts in the country and outside.
Speaking on the occasion, the Minister said Odisha is the only State to provide telemedicine facility to the villagers. By December-end, the facility would be available in all hospitals at block headquarters level and by mid-2014, all panchayat-level hospitals, he added.
Each centre would have a microscope, ECG and scanner besides other infrastructure with `5.25 crore sanctioned under National Rural Health Mission (NRHM).
Through the service, the doctors can not only consult the experts on how to treat a critical patient but also know about the latest treatment procedures. At present, a few patients in rural areas can afford to avail treatment in some of the best hospitals. Even many critical patients die due to want of treatment. However, the telemedicine facility would provide treatment facility to people in their respective areas.
The Minister said a patient would have to pay only `100 towards consultation fee at the telemedicine centres.
The centres would be connected with the MKCG telemedicine centre since the hospital is the referral hospital for the southern region, said Prof RN Mangual, in charge of telemedicine centre in MKCG.