CMOs directed to setup control rooms, provide telemedicine services

Srinagar: Directorate of Health Services, Kashmir has directed Chief Medical Officers (CMOs) among other Head of Departments (HoDs) to set up dedicated control rooms and provide round the clock medical assistance to the people amid surge in COVID-19 cases.

Director Health Services, Kashmir Dr Mushtaq Ahmad Rather said that CMOs were directed not to leave their stations and monitor the situation on a daily basis. Meanwhile he said that several doctors were also directed to provide telemedicine facilities to the non-COVID patients.

   

“We have to make sure that our rush to the hospitals gets dwindled. We have to keep the situation under control,” Director Health Services, Kashmir Dr Mushtaq Ahmad Rather told Greater Kashmir.

“We have several platforms and also a dedicated e-Sanjeevani, where patients can get in touch with the doctors in case of emergencies,” he added.

National Tele-consultation service of the Ministry of Health and Family Welfare is first of its kind online OPD service offered by a government to its citizens. It may be recalled that the National Tele-consultation service aims at providing healthcare services to patients in their homes. It is said that under the facility, safe structured video based clinical consultations between a doctor in a hospital and a patient in the confines of his home are being enabled.

“eSanjeevaniOPD – Stay Home OPD, developed by Centre for Development of Advanced Computing (C-DAC) has come up handy for the patients across the country as well,” Dr Rather said.

He said that doctors at several district headquarters created online platforms and were providing services. “They have set up a free telemedicine consultation service in Jammu and Kashmir to serve non-COVID-19 patients who have suffered as the focus of the existing healthcare infrastructure has been on dealing with the pandemic,” he said.

Dr Rather said that in order to ensure timely disposal of queries, district level control rooms managed by doctors and paramedical staff were set up to avoid any inconvenience to the patients.

Meanwhile, spokesperson Directorate Health Services, Kashmir Dr Mir Mushtaq told Greater Kashmir that considering the adverse impact the COVID-19 pandemic put on the existing health infrastructure of J&K, DHSK alerted all the district headquarters to remain on the toes so that people would get access to quality health consultations and services at their door-steps.

“This is done keeping in view that the hospitals are high risk places for contraction of COVID-19 and many medical ailments can be managed by telephonic consultations thus avoiding visit of patients to hospitals,” Dr Mir said.

Pertinently, earlier several Non-Governmental Organisations and SOS groups also swung to action, providing different voluntary health services to the patients.

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