CSCs to provide homeopathy, ayurveda telemedicine service from Nov

Common Service Centres (CSCs) in rural areas will from November start rolling out telemedicine services through which people can access alternative medicine systems like homeopathy and ayurveda, a senior official said on Friday.

The service will be made available following an agreement signed between CSC e-Governance Services India (CSC SPV) and the Ministry of Ayush.

"Ministry will provide the doctors who can provide tele consultation to citizens through video conferencing. CSV has a video conferencing platform which works on low bandwidth and does not even need a broadband connection.

"Initially the effort will be to promote Siddha form of medicine in Tamil Nadu. For this, one hundred CSCs have been selected," CSC SPV CEO Dinesh Tyagi told PTI.

He said integration of telemedicine service with CSC platform will take about a week.

The service will be initially available for free and later CSC SPV will work out some moderate rate for village level entrepreneurs (VLEs).

After Siddha, other forms of alternative medicine as homeopathy and ayurveda will also be made available under the program, Tyagi said.

"The telemedicine service will be available round the clock. It will be rolled out in other states from December onwards," he added.

The CSCs, which act as access points for delivery of digital services, will be provided some medicine kits to cater to prescription requirement and rest can be either purchased by the patient or the VLE.