'At least 15K centres for telemedicine services to come up'

kolkata: Health Secretary Narayan Swaroop Nigam on Friday said at least 15,000 health and wellness centers will be built in the next two years across the state, where telemedicine services will be made available so that the initial management of various patients can be done through this platform without having to shift the patients to the city hospitals.

Nigam made this announcement while he was addressing a virtual health care conference organised by the Indian Chamber of Commerce. He also laid stress on an integrated health management system which will ease the health care delivery mechanism both in the government and private sectors. "Tele-medicine facilities are coming up in a big way in the health wellness centers which will do the initial management of patients. Doctors have often suggested to us that if the initial management can be done through telemedicine many stroke patients and others do not require an admission in the city hospitals.

We are running telemedicine services through video and audio during the pandemic and there has been a huge response from the people," Nigam added.

"We are also developing our integrated health management system which will not only look into the government sector but will also cater to the private sectors through an integrated system where health registries, digital depositories, information relating to the referrals will be available," the health secretary said.

It will help to handle situations through an intelligent and smart approach and thereby bringing more transparency and efficiency into the system. We should be capable enough to locate where beds are available either in the government or the private sector. The clinical reports must reach the hospitals by the time the patient is brought," Nigam said.