Devotees thronging the famous Kashi Vishwanath Temple in Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s Parliamentary Constituency, Varanasi and Vidhyanchal temple in Mirjapur, both in poll-bound Uttar Pradesh will soon be able to access emergency healthcare through satellite-based telemedicine facilities.
The Union Health Ministry has asked the Indian Space Research Organisation (ISRO) to provide satellite communication systems at the two temples at the earliest to connect them with the centrally administered hospital in the Banaras Hindu University.
The move is part of the Government’s e-health initiatives to ensure better primary health services in rural and underserved areas including pilgrimage centres across the country. Under the pilgrimage category, the Ministry has identified Rameshwaram, Kedarnath, Amarnath and Jagannathpuri besides Dwarka, Badrinath, Sabrimala and Vaishnodevi religious sites to be connected with satellites.
The Health Ministry has already kick-started the project by covering two pilgrimage centres, the lord Ayyappa temple with telemedicine node at Pampa Hospital and Sheshnag base camp on way to Amarnath Shrine which is located at a height of over 13,000 feet.
Kashi Vishvanath temple and Vidhyanchal temple in Varanasi and Mirjapur respectively, both in Uttar Pradesh were included under the project recently at the initiation of Health Minister JP Nadda.
Similar telemedicine hubs have also been proposed in a district each in Odisha, Arunachal Pradesh and Meghalaya, all States with difficult terrain while in Himachal Pradesh, the Ministry has already set up such facility projected a telemedicine project at the Community Health Centre at Pooh in Kinnaur district. The centre has been connected to the PGIMER, Chandigarh which was inaugurated by Nadda recently.
The scheme aims to meet the shortage of doctors and provide basic health care and emergency medical care in remote, inaccessible areas in the country, said Jitendra Arora, Director (eHealth) in the Ministry.
Explaining about the process, Arora said the employees at the patient node examine the basic medical details. “The data is then transmitted to specialist node over satellite connectivity. The doctor at specialist node examines the case and the tele-consultation appointment is fixed between doctor and the patient.
“During the tele-consultation, doctor can ask the paramedic staff to again take the vital stats of the patient and the same data is then transmitted to doctor’s screen who will then provide the diagnosis/instructions via telemedicine software to patient in consultation with patient node staff,” he added.
Initially the tele-health services are being provided in the field of medicine, orthopaedics, respiratory and cardiology disciplines, the officer added.