As the majority of Covid-19 patients recuperate in home isolation, the Union Health Ministry is banking on teleconsultation services to provide timely care to them. On Tuesday, Union Health Minister Mansukh Mandaviya asked states to adopt the hub and spoke model and open additional teleconsultation centres.
“This will enable beneficiaries to access advice from experts stationed at district hubs, '' it said. He said the government’s e-Sanjeevani telemedicine system has provided services to more than 2.6 crore beneficiaries where people can seek medical advice from the confines of their homes,” he said during an interaction with health ministers, senior bureaucrats and administrators of nine states and union territories .
These were Jammu and Kashmir, Himachal Pradesh, Punjab, Chandigarh, Uttarakhand, Haryana, Delhi, Ladakh and Uttar Pradesh, according to a statement from the health ministry. Mandivya also urged the health ministers and state authorities to plug the existing gaps by efficiently utilizing the amount sanctioned for various infra projects
On the importance of teleconsultation services, Mandaviya urged them “This will prove to be a game-changer and will be of immense value and importance for the hard-to-reach and far-flung areas, and especially in the northern regions in the current winter season,” he highlighted.
He advised the states and union territories to ensure that those in home isolation are efficiently monitored in line with the national guidelines. This will ensure that the vulnerable categories of active cases in home isolation get the required medical help in a timely manner, the statement said. The virtual meeting was held to review public health preparedness for containment and management of Covid and the progress of the national Covid 9 vaccination campaign.