PESHAWAR: The government has approved a plan under which people in five remote districts would start receiving medical services through telemedicine programme, initially started in as many districts in 2017.

It programme is aimed at enabling the people of the far flung areas to get access to specialised medication via internet.

On Monday, the chief minister approved Rs340 million for extension of the programme in addition to continuation of the services already in place in Karak, Chitral, Battagram, Swabi and Nowshera for three years.

Funds were required to pay outstanding amount for equipment, computer software and other expenses. The government had pledged Rs95 million for one year project but didn’t give amount in full and activities came to standstill in July 2018 for want of fund when the contracting firm stopped the services.

The chief minister approves Rs340m for the project

However, chief minister ordered expansion of the project and approved not only release of the unpaid amount for the last year but also issued directives for going ahead with extension plan, said Dr Jamal Nasir, the medical superintendent of the Services Hospital and head of the project.

He said that Rs140 million would be released for the first year and the activities in the existing districts would begin immediately. He said that extension of the project to the new districts would take few weeks.

The initiative is a brainchild of former chief secretary Mohammad Azam Khan, now principal secretary to prime minister.

The programme has gained popularity as the provincial government is receiving requests from Punjab government for its replication there.

“We are also considering a proposal from Afghan Commissionerate to start the project in KP-based refugee camps.

In future, we can start it for the people of Afghanistan where people seek same sort of treatment from India. We can extend them same facilities at far lesser rates,” said Dr Jamal.

He said that they received on average 35 patients per day at the spokes established in the target districts.

He said that the programme was based at Services Hospital Peshawar where specialists examined patients via internet. He added that the spokes were located at the designated basic health units in the selected districts.

“The number of patients has increased in every spoke and despite being quite new, people come and undergo free checkups by the consultants on big screens using communication technology,” said Dr Jamal.

The innovative programme benefitted people having skin, eye and respiratory tract infections, besides diarrhoea, gynaecological ailments, hypertension, arthritis, body aches, injuries, urinary tract infections, depression, chests diseases, epilepsy, cough and ear, nose and throat problems.

He said that many patients were referred to Peshawar from the local health units where they were examined by the consultants concerned.

Dr Jamal said that it was part of the initiative that patients from RHCs were referred to telemedicine clinic in Peshawar and were seen by their respective doctor.

He added that the software could be extended to the whole province when the programme got acceptability among the people.

The mineral development department has moved a proposal to health department for telemedicine services in 12 clusters in the six districts for its workers in mining.

“The programme has been piloted by special development unit at planning and development department. It has now become a regular programme of the health department,” said Dr Jamal.

Published in Dawn, November 13th, 2018