The Hindu Business Line : Cuddapah linked to telemedicine

DR Y.S. Rajasekhara Reddy, Chief Minister of Andhra Pradesh, has launched telemedicine connectivity linking the District Government Hospital at Cuddapah and Apollo Hospitals in Hyderabad.

The connectivity would allow the poor patients visiting the Cuddapah hospital to have free consultation from experts at Apollo.

Addressing a press conference here on Friday, Dr Prathap C. Reddy, Chairman of the Apollo group, said the poor would get free consultation for the next five years.

Commending the district administration's interest in providing healthcare to the children, he said all children in the district were screened for heart diseases. The Cuddapah model should be emulated by others.

There were not enough medical specialists to deal with the enormity of health problems that the country faced. Telemedicine was one way to maximise the resources using technology to cater to the medical needs of 75 per cent of the population that lived in rural areas.

He said Apollo had 100 telemedicine connections, including to Sri Lanka, Pakistan, Bangladesh and Africa.

Dr Anil and Dr K.S. Murthy, who led Apollo's team to conduct surgeries and interventions on children suffering from heart diseases, said over 700 children were identified in the district. "We have operated upon 100 children," he said.

Save a Child's Heart (SACH) and Cuddapah administration contributed major portion of costs, giving the poor access to good medicare.

"These children will lead normal life," Dr Prathap Reddy said.

The Chief Minister presented a cheque for Rs one crore to an Apollo representative towards the cost of operations.

Referring to the August 7 rally that brought focus to the issue, Dr Murthy said the hospital screened 504 children and performed surgeries on 304 children, including 108 in Cuddapah. Of these, 60 were interventions that didn't need a surgery.

Dr Rajasekhara Reddy said the Government had ordered for a State-wide screening programme after the rally. "We identified 6,000 children with heart problems. Besides the Government hospital, we roped in some corporate hospitals to perform surgeries on these children," he said.

The Government had decided to develop infrastructure at the public hospitals at a cost of Rs 25 crore.

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