PANAJI: Union minister for road transport and highways, Nitin Gadkari, launched telemedicine — a digital platform for patients to access medical help without having to wait in a queue — at a function held at the Goa Medical College and Hospital (GMC), on Monday.
The Union minister said a similar initiative had been launched in Nagpur, Maharashtra, and proved very effective during the Covid-19 pandemic, specially for the people of Gadchiroli, a tribal and underdeveloped district. Gadchiroli is more than double the size of Goa and is covered by dense forests.
“The people of Gadchiroli are economically, socially, and educationally backward,” Gadkari said.
“During the pandemic, they faced a lot more problems as the nearest hospital was in Nagpur with a travel time of five to six hours. Naturally, travelling that far was an issue, but with the help of technology, we have tried to reach them,” the Union minister said. “Telemedicine is an important platform to provide relief to poor patients, particularly those who do not have a health care facility.”
Chief minister Pramod Sawant said having a telemedicine platform will not just help in early diagnosis and treatment, but will also save time and lives.
“I expect the GMC doctors to treat the project as their own to help the whole state, particularly people living in villages who find it difficult to travel to the GMC,” he said. Recounting how several people had lost their lives to Covid-related complications as they were unable to seek timely medical help during the pandemic, he said telemedicine would be of great help in those types of situations.
Health minister Vishwajit Rane said the whole idea was to take healthcare to the doorsteps of the people. “The launch of a telemedicine service at the GMC will not alone boost health care centres in the state, but will give people access to quick consultation. The pandemic has taught us to look at the whole healthcare scenario differently,” he said.
GMC dean Dr S M Bandekar said the GMC’s outpatient department had remained shut for almost two years due to the pandemic, affecting several chronic patients seeking timely consultation. As a result, many patients — particularly those suffering from strokes and cancer — presented late with severe symptoms.
“As we reopened non-Covid OPDs, we saw a lot of patients with strokes and delayed oncological problems. This new facility will help patients who cannot visit a hospital,” Bandekar said.
Dhiraj Sharma, who aided the GMC in setting up the telemedicine platform said it would catapult the state’s premier healthcare institute into a new league. “This is the first instance of any government institute or a medical college introducing a telemedicine facility, whereby doctors will be available to patients at the touch of a button,” he said. “The telemedicine platform will allow decongestion of the tertiary care hospital. A day will come when the senior GMC doctors will able to devote time for research and writing medical papers of the toughest cases, while junior doctors will do procedures.”
Source: timesofindia.indiatimes.com
