e-health centre opens sans staff

Tribune News Service

Chandigarh, November 21

Punjab Governor and UT Administrator VP Singh Badnore, along with MP Kirron Kher, today inaugurated the much hyped e-health centre at the dispensary in Dhanas here, without any dedicated staff to run the facility.

Barely few minutes after the inauguration, Meenu Singh,  head, Department of Telemedicine, who is heading the initiative, admitted that the department needed a dedicated team of  doctors and paramedics to run the centre. “Already, PGIMER doctors are overburdened. Ideally, there should be dedicated staff to examine the reports of patients,” Meenu Singh said.

It also came to light that the lab technicians and paramedical staff carrying out tests at the new health facility were deployed merely for the sake of inauguration. “We need trained technicians to successfully run the centre. The technical staff that is carrying out tests belongs to the PGIMER,” said Meenu Singh.

PGIMER Director Prof Jagat Ram said, “We provided the technical staff for the inauguration ceremony. However, since the land where the dispensary is located belongs to the Chandigarh Administration, the onus of providing manpower is on them. Our job is to provide expert support.”

He said he had requested Heath Secretary Anurag Aggarwal to launch similar initiatives in all 35 dispensaries in the city to lessen the patient rush at the PGI.

“Once the primary care is strengthened, patients at the PGI will begin to decline,” said Prof   Jagat Ram.

 Punjab Governor and UT Administrator VP Singh Badnore and Chandigarh MP Kirron Kher formally inaugurated the e-health centre.

While inaugurating the facility, Badnore said the initiative aimed at benefitting the common man. "But they are sitting in the back row. Ideally, they should have been seated in the front row," he said.

The centre has been set up by converting a courier container, which was lying unused at the Dhanas dispensary for nearly a decade.

Diagnostic techniques, including ECG, lung function test and blood test, will be conducted at the facility. PGI doctors’ view could be taken on reports of patients through video-conferencing.

 The centre has been supported by Hewlett Packard under its corporate social responsibility (CSR) initiative.

It is the first-of-its-kind centre in Punjab and Chandigarh. It is fully equipped with a workstation, electronic medical record (EMR) system, biometric patient identification and integrated diagnostic devices.

Kirron has a dig at Punjab health infra

During the inauguration of e-health centre, MP Kirron Kher said the Punjab Government should pull up socks and do something to lessen the burden on health facilities in Chandigarh.  “Here, not only doctors but paramedical staff is also hard-pressed. If any incident takes place in Mohali, the patient is brought to Chandigarh. Health Secretary Anurag Aggarwal should look into it,” said the MP.

Schoolchildren’s safety put to risk

Paramedical staff deployed at the newly inaugurated e-health centre gave safety precautions the go-by while conducting a respiratory function test on children of a local government school in Dhanas. Instead of replacing the tube used for the test, the paramedic was merely cleaning it with a tissue paper. Dr Meenu Singh, head, Department of Telemedicine, said the paramedical staff was supposed to replace the tube to prevent the risk of infection.