NEW DELHI: The Union Health and Family Welfare Minister, Anbumani Ramadoss, inaugurated a telemedicine connectivity between the country's premier All-India Institute of Medical Sciences (AIIMS) and the Comprehensive Rural Health Services (CRHS) project at Ballabhgarh in Haryana on Tuesday.

The facility will cater to the health care needs of rural masses in the district of Faridabad and also enable doctors at AIIMS to assist physicians at the two primary care centres in the villages of Jhansa and Dayalpur.

The Minister also inaugurated Phase I of the office automation system at AIIMS that will implement the file tracking system in the finance and vigilance divisions.

Through this facility, all AIIMS employees will now have access to movement of files in the two divisions. The project has been introduced keeping in tune with the Government commitment to bring about transparency and right to information to the users.

Speaking on the occasion, Dr. Ramadoss congratulated AIIMS on having conducted consultation for its first patient, a two-and-a-half-year-old boy diagnosed with Sturge Weber Syndrome. "We have to understand that a large population of India lives in the rural areas and telemedicine would facilitate easy diagnoses and treatment. India has the best brains in the field of information technology and there is no reason why our people should not enjoy the benefits of the same. The country today has a bad patient-doctor ratio which needs all the help it can get from technological advancements,'' he added.

Public money

Speaking about the automation system just introduced, he said: "The institute gets over Rs. 430 crores every year and there has to be accountability for the public money. The hospital will now lead the way for other top-notch hospitals and health care facilities across the country to opt for similar systems and they could even ask AIIMS for assistance in replicating the same.''

The telemedicine nodes are located in the departments of Radiology, Pathology and Dr. Rajendra Prasad Centre for Opthalmic Sciences.

Additionally one node has been provided at the common telemedicine facility where specialised consultant will provide their services to any part of the country connected through telemedicine network.

"From today we will be connecting to the CRHS Project, Ballabhgarh, which reiterates our commitment towards providing world class healthcare services to the rural areas covered by the Primary Health Centres under AIIMS,'' said AIIMS Director P. Venugopal.

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