Naga Telehealth receives overwhelming response

Our Reporter
Dimapur, Oct. 13 (EMN): The recently launched telemedicine platform Naga Telehealth has received overwhelming responds from patients suffering from various ailments.

The Naga Telehealth platform was launched on September 9 with an aim to provide remote healthcare service to the people of Nagaland.

It was reported that more than 232 patients have availed the online consultation on health-related issues through the platform in the past fortnight.

Speaking to Eastern Mirror, deputy director of National Health Mission (NHM), Dr. Manyau Phom, informed that the Naga Telehealth facility under the Ayushman Bharat is available at 82 centres out of the total 163 health and wellness centres across Nagaland. He informed that the Naga Telehealth facility would be introduced in phase manner to the remaining community health centres.

The deputy director also informed that a total of 19 trained doctors from the National Urban Health Mission (NUHM) and seven specialists from Christian Institute of Health and Science Research (CIHSR) have been assigned as the panel for Naga Telehealth.

Replying to a query on the procedure to avail the facilities by patients, Phom said that patients have to first approach the community health officers (CHO) at the respective health and wellness centre. According to him, the CHO should first examine the patient’s health issue and also conduct all basic laboratory tests at the facility before availing the tele-consultation facility.

He added that based on the findings by the CHO regarding the patients, it would be uploaded in the Naga Telehealth app, which would be subsequently available on Playstore app. He, however, stated that the app would require a specific code in order to avoid misuse of the app as it is medical application.

When asked about the timing to get appointment for consultation, Phom informed that 19 medical doctors would be available from 10 am to 2 pm on all working days. To fully materialise the mission, he informed that network connectivity is still a big issue especially in remote areas.

Phom also informed that they need to have more awareness regarding the platform since most of the people in rural areas are not aware of the facility. He added that CHOs are doing their part to spread the awareness to public to make use of Naga Telehealth.

He was optimistic that all the health sub-centre and primary healthcare centres would be gradually converted into a health and wellness centre, which is the target of Ayushman Bharat.

He added that its technical partners namely USAID, NISHTHA and Jhpiego are planning to provide network connectivity in all the health and wellness centre in Nagaland and also provide IT materials for smooth implementation.