Ensure telemedicine in rural areas, PM Modi tells doctors

Modi said telemedicine has played a big role for patients in home isolation

With Covid-19 spread in rural areas, Prime Minister Narendra Modi on Monday asked doctors form teams, train final year MBBS students and interns to ensure telemedicine services across all tehsils and districts of the country.

Interacting with doctors, the Prime Minister also asked them to ensure that home-based care of every Covid-19 patient was driven by standard operating procedures and urged them to create awareness about mucormycosis.

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“Vaccines have ensured safety of most of the doctors,” the prime minister told the doctors and noted that 90% of the health professionals have already got the first dose of the vaccine.

Modi asked the doctors to include oxygen audit in their daily efforts. The suggestion came against the backdrop of shortage of oxygen in some parts of the country and deaths of patients due to non-availability of the life saving gas.

He noted that the steps taken to augment human resources, like including MBBS students in Covid treatment, and ASHAs and Anganwadi workers in rural areas, provided extra support to the health system.

He said that telemedicine has played a big role for patients in home isolation, and this service needs to be expanded in rural areas as well.

The Prime Minister praised doctors who are forming teams and providing telemedicine service in villages.

On the challenge of mucormycosis, Modi said that doctors may need to put in extra effort towards taking active steps and spreading awareness about it.

He also highlighted the importance of psychological care and said that continuously fighting this long battle against the virus must be mentally challenging for the medical fraternity.

The Prime Minister is scheduled to interact with field officials from states and districts to hear about their experiences in handling the pandemic.

Officials from Karnataka, Bihar, Assam, Chandigarh, Tamil Nadu, Uttarakhand, MP, Goa, Himachal Pradesh, Delhi will take part in Tuesday’s meeting.