Specialist doctors reach out to poor remotely

Hyderabad: To provide better medical aid to slum-dwellers, Basti Dawakhanas in the city are taking to telemedicine. By using Skype or other video calling applications, they are facilitating consultation with specialist doctors from reputed hospitals.

The medical personnel at Dawakhanas are increasingly utilising this medium as it can be used free of cost. This facility, after its success since its launch in April at 10 Dawakhanas, is coming up at five more centres by end of September.

Around 10,000 patients are said to have availed of this service till date. This service facilitates virtual meet-ups with specialists in general medicine, physiotherapy, pulmonology, dermatology, Pediatrics, orthopedics, psychiatry and ENT.

"The Basti Dawakhana initiative is a collaboration of GHMC and Mission of Ministry of Health and Family Welfare (MOHFW), andnow Tata Trust has taken up an initiative to provide teleconsultation service.

With the help of the trust, we have tied up with experienced doctors from Osmania General Hospital and Sircilla Area Hospital. Tata Trust is also providing experts in physiotherapy, who are providing services to the patients through Skype and video calling apps," according to D Sai Varun, City Programme Officer, National Health Mission (NHM).

A tab along with 2 headsets is provided at all the Dawakhanas by the Tata Trust. There is a special slot for psychologist-only services on Saturdays between 1 pm to 2 pm. Patients book their slots to make use of their services.

The staff of Dawakhana enter details in a special software tool, Digital Nerve Centre (DiNC). A slot is fixed after which registration identification is issued to the patient. Just using a tab and headphones, doctors, staff and patients can easily participate in the teleconsultation process.

If advice of experts is required, a slot is booked a day before by the patients with the help of the Dawakhana staff. Each call lasts for 15 to 20 minutes and a total 3 to 4 calls are attended in an hour. "Based on the specialist doctor's recommendations, medicines and treatment are offered by the doctors at the Dawakhana.

The response is very good and in a day at least 5 to 6 patients are availing of this service," said Dr Sujatha Valvadas, General Physician, Basti Dawakhana, Shyamala Building. Three days after consultation, a Tata Trust official calls the patient and seeks feedback and suggestions to improve the service.