Bhopal: There are apparently no takers for the city’s first and only hi-tech e-Health Centre, located across the road from the Mrignaynee Emporium in New Market, due to lack of publicity. Started by the Bhopal Smart City Development Corporation Limited (BSCDC) under the Smart City project, the centre was inaugurated in May 2018 with the objective of giving access to patients to super-specialist doctors of Apollo Hospitals across the country for consultation.
However, surprisingly most of the people in the city are unaware of the facility. In the past three months, just 60 to 80 persons have visited the centre. According to sources, on some days, the Centre has just two or three visitors. On other days, there are none. Some visit just out of curiosity.
“Patients who visited the centre had complaints ranging from diabetes to cold and headache,” said Deepak Vishwakarma, who manages the facility single-handedly. In tie-up with Apollo Hospitals, the centre provides consultancy of top doctors through video calls. In this way, it saves time, money and energy of the patients. A report on the problems of the patients is uploaded on an app and within minutes, a doctor is on a video call. The doctors prescribe medicines and tests to the patients.
“We can also provide sample collection facility from the home of any patient who has visited our centre, but is unable to come to the centre for giving his sample,” he added. The centre also provides diagnostic facilities like ECG, Haemoglobin (HB) and blood glucose. The consultancy fee for specialists and super-specialists is Rs 1200 while for MBBS doctors, it is Rs 150. After a week, the patients can come to the centre for a follow-up, which is free. The visiting hour of the centre is from 9am to 5pm.
PRO blames it on Model Code of Conduct
I don’t think the response is so poor. According to my information, around 200-250 patients visit the centre every day from 9am to 5pm. May be, there is lack of awareness about tele-medicine among the people. In the beginning, we had launched a campaign for publicising the centre, but it had to be abandoned because of the election model of conduct that came into force during the Vidhan Sabha elections.
The centre was inaugurated on May 8, 2018 and full-fledged services started two months later. We have an arrangement with the Apollo Hospitals and specialist doctors from the hospital provide consultancy to the patients. Nitin Dave, PRO, Smart City Development Corporation Limited
