LAHORE: The Syndicate of the King Edward Medical University (KEMU) has approved upgrade of the telemedicine centre at the varsity to a fully-fledged permanent department of the institution.

The KEMU had established the Punjab Telemedicine Centre for Excellence during the the Covid-19 pandemic to extend online treatment facility to the patients by deputing senior medical teachers for the purpose.

Presided over by KEMU Vice Chancellor Prof Khalid Masood Gondal, the Syndicate took the decision in its 57th meeting held here the other day.

Lahore High Court judge Mr Justice Shahram Sarwar Chaudhry, Punjab Public Service Commission Member Mr Nayyar Iqbal, Specialised Healthcare and Medical Education Department Special Secretary Dr Asif Tufail, Shaheed Zulfiqar Ali Bhutto Medical University (SZABMU), Islamabad, VC Prof Tanveer Khaliq, representatives of the Higher Education Commission (HEC) Pakistan, finance and other departments concerned attended the meeting.

An official said the telemedicine centre was set up at a time when a rising number of patients with Covid-related complication were unable to reach the hospitals which were already massively burdened and the death toll was increasing.

At the centre, he said, the varsity had appointed senior medical teachers to attend the calls of the Covid patients to prescribe them medicines during their home isolation. The Punjab government’s policy was aimed at easing the growing burden on the healthcare facilities in the province during the peak of the pandemic, he added.

The official said thousands of Covid patients availed this facility to get treatment from the public hospitals without going there.

“The telemedicine department prescribed treatment to 16,700 patients from 80 districts of Pakistan and 46 countries of the world”, the official said. Of them, 73 Covid patients had called the centre from United Arab Emirates, 59 from Saudi Arabia, while others were from Afghanistan, Qatar, Kuwait, Oman, China, Russia, South Africa, UK, USA, Germany, Australia etc.

Sharing further breakup of the statistics, he said, of the total patients, nearly 15,000 got treatment from Punjab, 589 from Islamabad, 297 from Sindh, 143 from Khyber Pakhtunkhwa, 91 from Azad Jamu & Kashmir, 59 from Balochistan, 16 from Gilgit-Baltistan and two from FATA.

Appreciating the idea of KEMU telemedicine unit, former Punjab governor Chaudhry Sarwar extended its scope to the major hospitals all over the province, he said.

The official said a US delegation had especially visited the KEMU to see the infrastructure and working of human resource at its telemedicine unit.

During the meeting, the Syndicate members approved a proposal to upgrade the telemedicne unit to a permanent department of the KEMU.

KEMU VC Prof Gondal also updated the meeting about the recent academic, research and infrastructural developments at the university.

The house approved the extension of the KEMU’s Tenure Track Statutes (TTS) faculty members, besides appointment of Prof Bilquis Shabbir as Dean of Nursing.

On the occasion, Mr Justice Shahram Sarwar Chaudhry and SZABMU VC Prof Tanveer Khaliq lauded the establishment of KEMU telemedicine unit as a successful effort to curtail the pandemic.

Prof Gondal informed the meeting that the KEMU telemedicine department would also be linked with all the district and tehsil headquarters hospitals in the province for the benefit of the public at large.

Published in Dawn, April 4th, 2022