Calcutta Medical College and Hospital launches its app

Kolkata: The Calcutta Medical College and Hospital (CMCH), the oldest medical college in Asia is all set to introduce a mobile application whereby the patients and their family members can get all the information related to the health services at the hospital.

The CMCH is the first state-run medical college in the state that has come up with the unique idea of launching an App which will be an effective medium to disseminate information among the patients including those coming from the districts.

The citizen friendly mobile app, named as "Medical College Bengal, Apnar Pashe, Apnar Sathe" is expected to kick start on the Bengali New year. A special team was formed comprising MSVP of the hospital, various assistant superintendents and nursing super following the instruction of Dr Nirmal Maji, the Chairman of Rogi Kalyan Samity at the hospital.

According to an assistant superintendent of the hospital, who is the part of the team that developed the app said apart from information on the health services at CMCH, the mobile App would also provide information on School of Tropical Medicine (STM) and Regional Institute of Ophthalmology (RIO).

According to sources, patients can get the schedule of various Outpatient Departments (OPD) at CMCH through the App. By the virtue of this application, the patients will have prior information about the availability of doctors or the room number of a particular doctor. Once a patient visits the App, he or she will be able to know various health programmes run by the state government and the Centre. The details of the schemes would also be put on display.

The information about the availability of beds at various departments and blood belonging to various groups will also be there on the app.

A list of essential drugs and the list of drugs available at the fair Price Medicine Shop will also reflect on the app along with the availability of all diagnostic tests and clinical investigation.

There will be information on HDU, CCU or ICU and their availability. Even if a patient who is inside the hospital campus and looking for a particular department can get the direction by hitting the citizen friendly app.

An official of the hospital said there will be a department wise map of the hospital on the app. If a patient is standing near the MSVP office and he/she wants to go to the pathology department, the app will direct him. A help of Google Map would be taken for developing the app, the official said.

There will be separate icons where people can lodge their complaints, grievances or suggestions if there is any. The application needs to be downloaded from Google play store where patients will initially have two language options- Bengali and English. There will also be a registration process done on the basis of OTP generated by the users.

Prof Dr Ashok Kumar Bhadra, Principal of CMCH said: "This is a unique initiative which will be immensely beneficial to the patients visiting the hospital."