Union Health Minister J P Nadda today launched tele-evidence facility for recording evidences through video conference, country's first such facility which has been started at Post-Graduate Institute of Medical Education and Research (PGIMER) here.
Nadda also formally launched the online appointments for new and re-visiting patients and also inaugurated the Central Sophisticated Instruments Cell (CSIC) at the institute.
In his address on the occasion, Nadda said that the inauguration of these services is being done as a part of the 'Good Governance Week' which commenced on December 25, birthday of former Prime Minister, Atal Bihari Vajpayee.
Also Read
The Union Minister appreciated PGIMER, Chandigarh for being the first institution in the country to start tele-evidence facility at institutional level and exuded confidence that "the success story" will be replicated in other institutes around the country as well.
Nadda said that tele-evidences can save precious man-hours of doctors and result in more patient satisfaction. As per rough estimate the institute has saved about 1.93 tonnes of carbon foot prints using the eco-friendly tele-evidence technology, he said.
"I am told you (PGI) have been able to save 630 mandays till now and you are going to save thousands of mandays like this in coming days and thousands of tonnes of carbon foot prints also you are going to save. It is a facility which has to go forward," Nadda said.
The Union Health minister said that the online registration facility was launched at AIIMS, New Delhi also on December 25, 2015, and has helped to drastically reduce waiting time for patients.
Online registrations in PGIMER were started on trial basis in April, 2015.
The CSIC would ensure availability of cutting edge technology for higher research and management under a centralized facility. Instruments of this facility would avoid requirement of multiple sophisticated equipment in major departments/research laboratories as they all will have access to this facility.
Nadda also said the target is to make PGIMER, Chandigarh a paperless institution.
Later when asked by Reporters about tele-evidence project, Nadda said it will immensely benefit the patients as well as the doctors.
"This project will not only save time, money, but it will immensely benefit both doctors and patients. This is a good project and a success story, which we will try to replicate in other institutes as well," he said.
Praising PGIMER, Nadda said, "PGIMER has also been up to
the mark, because they had been given the deadline till December this year. You have also started the facility for the patients re-visiting the institute, so it is an additional facility which you have created."
PGIMER has already joined the 'Digital India Programme' of the Central Government, by making available OPD appointments, laboratory reports and Blood Bank stock position on the 'Online Registration System' web portal, a national platform framework to link hospitals across the country.
Nadda said the next target was that PGI should be paperless.
"We have to make it a paperless institute, this is what I expect from AIIMS and PGI..Whatever the difficulties will be there, we will be there to take care. But we have to go fast and we have to show the difference which the patients should feel. This is possible only when we make the system robust and address shortcomings, if any which are there," he said.
As far as high-end Central Sophisticated Instrument Cell (CSIC), Nadda said, "it is going to save lot of money because duplication and multiplication of instrument will not be there and patient at one place will get all types of facilities."
"In fact, I would like to say that PGI has taken many good initiatives which can be replicated in other institutes. There are many good practices which you have developed and I suppose that other institutes faculty members should also visit here.
"That way you are one of the pioneers and one of the leaders in medical education field," Nadda said
About the online appointments, the Union Health Minister said, "ever since I took over, I was asking the PGIMER Director to see to it that you should start the online registration. It was in April 2015 that the soft launch was done then. After lot of ups and downs, lot of tests and going through the demand of the patients, we have been able to successfully launch it".
Also present on the occasion was Joint Secretary, Union Health Ministry, Ali Rizvi, PGIMER Director, Prof Y K Chawla, PGI senior doctors S C Varma and Yashpaul Sharma, besides Chandigarh BJP President Sanjay Tandon.
"As far as online services are concerned, the patients
will benefit and it will save time of patients and doctors as well. We started this service at AIIMS on December 25. There the patient or the attendant who used to come, the waiting time was six hours, which has now been reduced to one-and-a-half years. This is important facility which has been provided," Nadda said.
PGIMER Director, Y K Chawla informed that doctors of his institute received around 1500 summons in the year 2013 and around 2000 summons in 2014, for giving their professional or expert evidence in various courts located in Punjab, Haryana, Himachal Pradesh and in few other states.
Notably, testimony through video conference being an acceptable and legal method of giving evidence, recording of evidence through video conferencing was started on trial basis at PGIMER earlier.
According to PGIMER figures, by attending the summons through tele-evidencing, the institute saved the cost of travelling 485748 km or on an average 262 km per tele-evidence.
Also, a total including waiting and travelling time of 14710 hours (613 days) was saved equivalent to 476 minutes (8 hours) per tele-evidence. On a rough estimate, the Institute has saved around Rs 1.92 crore through the 1800 testimonies of doctors, conducted through tele-evidence besides the 1.93 tonnes of carbon foot prints saved using the eco-friendly tele-evidence technology, as per the PGI figures.
