M’laya makes strides in teleconsultations

SHILLONG, April 22: Notwithstanding the remote location and difficult terrain, Meghalaya is achieving huge success with regard to teleconsultations with already an award in its bag.
Teleconsultation is interaction that happens between a clinician and a patient for the purpose of providing diagnostic or therapeutic advice through electronic means.
According to National Health Mission (NHM) Director, Ramkumar S, close to 500 health and wellness centres including community and primary health centres across the state have been equipped with teleconsultations facilities.
Plans are afoot to start the initiative in 100 more such health and wellness centres in the next year.
Moreover, the government has created hubs in Shillong, Tura, and Williamnagar, where doctors have been assigned the work for teleconsultations as earlier, there were no separate doctors. Now, the government has taken NEIGRIHMS, Ganesh Das Hospital and Civil Hospital on board.
In January, only 3-4 teleconsultations would take place but the numbers increased to around 1,000 in February. In March, 5,250 teleconsultations were done throughout the state, while this month alone, nearly 6000 teleconsultations took place in the state.
The idea of teleconsulations in Meghalaya assumes significance as many of the sub centres in the state are located in remote areas of the state and patients often find it tough to travel from remote areas to the state capital where more specialised hospitals are located.
According to the Director of NHM, the highest number of teleconsultations (924) was conducted on April 14, whereas in the last one week, around 400 teleconsultations have been recorded to occur every day on an average.
Admitting that network connectivity is a big challenge for this initiative, Ramkumar said that the government will soon come up with an app for teleconsultations from the comfort of people’s homes or any location, provided there is network connectivity.
Meghalaya was awarded 2nd rank among the Northeastern states in conducting teleconsultations at Ayushman Bharat-Health and Wellness Centres.