NEW DELHI, May 17:
Treating severely wounded personnel on board Indian Navy ships will be easier now as specialists sitting far away can advise the best possible treatment through video-conferencing via India’s military satellite ‘Rukmini’.
The Government has recently sanctioned a Rs 61.59-crore telemedicine project for the Navy.
“It would bring a revolutionary change in attending to severely injured patients in remote locations where a specialist is not available,” a senior Navy official said.
Explaining the concept, he said while a doctor and a medical team is always on board when a ship sails out, specialists are available mainly on the bases.
“At present, if there is an accident and a person is severely injured, he is stabilised and taken by air to the command hospital or is transferred to a bigger ship if one is available.
“With telemedicine, a super specialists like a neurosurgeon can see the reports and other details on his computer and give step by step directions to the general doctor on board via video conferencing,” the official said.
The Navy at present has 133 ships, over 200 aircraft and 13 submarines. The force has a strength of 600 doctors, of which specialists would be around 300 and super-specialists around 100.
While doctors are on board the ships, the specialist and super-specialists are mostly based on land. The Navy currently has three medical facilities on land.
The main is INS Ashwini in Mumbai which has the status of a Command Hospital. The other two are INS Sanjivani in Kerala and INS Kalyani in Visakhapatnam.
“Telemedicine would be facilitated through Rukmini,” Navy sources said. (PTI)
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