BENGALURU: Deputy Chief Minister D K Shivakumar and Health and Family Welfare Minister Dinesh Gundu Rao inaugurated a Tele ICU Cluster in Bengaluru and Ballari district on Friday. The DCM lauded the effort and called the tele-intensive care units a revolutionary step in healthcare and a boon for rural areas. He strongly advocated for these centres to be expanded around Karnataka so that everyone could avail quality healthcare.
The ICU cluster in Bengaluru was opened at the Trauma Care Centre in Victoria Hospital in collaboration with nine spoke (taluk) hospitals that it will cater to. “By the time patients are brought to Bengaluru or another large city, it would be too late. This facility is a boon for people in villages,” Shivakumar said during the inauguration. He added that the tele ICUs enable ICU beds to be set up in far-off places and the patients there can be monitored remotely by experts in Bengaluru.
Currently, the state has four Tele ICU clusters, including Bengaluru, Mysuru, Hubballi and Ballari. According to data, over 11,000 people have been treated through the Tele ICU system in a year. The service has been implemented in a Public-Private Partnership (PPP) model for Rs 40 crore. The newly added clusters have been linked to nine spoke hospitals each.
The Health Minister said the tele-ICU system will be set up in all taluk hospitals in a phased manner starting with 60 taluk hospitals. “People in rural areas should be treated by qualified specialist doctors. It is becoming difficult for people to come from remote districts for super speciality treatment. We have emphasised the use of technologies in Tele-ICU centres. So far, four government medical institutions have been created as hubs and 41 taluk hospitals have been linked to them,” Gundu Rao added.
‘Keep eye on ambulances’
During the inauguration, the deputy CM warned 108 ambulance drivers from taking critical patients during emergencies to private hospitals. He instructed the officials to track such ambulances and reprimand the drivers. “There are many complaints that 108 ambulances take patients to private hospitals on priority, despite government hospitals in the area. This puts patients in financial difficulty as private hospitals are expensive. I urge the authorities to use technology and track the ambulances,” he said.