Panaji: Minister of Union for road and highway transportation, Nitin Gadkari, launched Telemedicine – a digital platform for patients to access medical assistance without having to wait in the queue – at a function held at the Goa Medical College and Hospital (GMC), on Monday.
The Union Minister said similar initiatives had been launched in Nagpur, Maharashtra, and proved to be very effective during the Covid-19 pandemic, especially for the people of Gadchiroli, tribal district and retarded.
Gadchiroli is more than double the size of the cave and is covered by dense forests.
“Gadchiroli people are economically, social, and education,” said Gadkari.
“During a pandemic, they faced more problems because the nearest hospital was in Nagpur with a travel time of five to six hours.
Naturally, traveling as far as it was a problem, but with the help of technology, we have tried to reach them,” said Minister of Union.
“Telemedicine is an important platform to provide assistance to poor patients, especially those who do not have health care facilities.” The Chairperson of the Minister of Pramod Sawant said that having a telemedicine platform would not only help in diagnosis and early care, but it would also save time and life.
“I hope the GMC doctors treats the project as their property to help the whole country, especially those who live in villages that find it difficult to travel to GMC,” he said.
Calculating how some people lost their lives for Covid’s related complications because they could not seek medical assistance on time during a pandemic, he said Telemedicine would be very helpful in such situations.
Minister of Health Vishwajit Rane said the whole idea was to take health care for the threshold of people.
“The launch of Telemedicine services in GMC will not alone will increase the health care center in the state, but will give people access to rapid consultations.
Pandemics have taught us to see all health scenarios differently,” he said.
GMC Dean Dr.
S M Bandekar said the GMC outpatient department was still closed for almost two years because of a pandemic, which affected some chronic patients who were seeking consultations on time.
As a result, many patients – especially those with strokes and cancer – served late with severe symptoms.
“When we reopen the non-covid OPD, we see a lot of patients with a delayed stroke and oncologist.
This new facility will help patients who cannot visit the hospital,” Bandekar said.
Dhiraj Sharma, which cost GMC in establishing a telemedicine platform said it would make the Institute Healthcare Premier State into the new league.
“This is the first example of every government or medical college institution that introduces telemedicine facilities, where doctors will be available for patients with a touch of a button,” he said.
“The telemedicine platform will allow decongesti from a tertiary care hospital.
One day it will come when a senior GMC doctor will be able to devote time to research and write medical papers from the toughest cases, while a junior doctor will carry out the procedure.”