2992 patients provided treatment, medicines through helpline: DC Srinagar

Srinagar: The District Administration, Srinagar provided assistance for treatment and medicines to 2892 patients through it’s Call Centre Helpline made available for citizens in view of non-covid health emergencies requiring special attention amid lockdown.
The IVRS based Call Centre was inaugurated by Lt Governor Sh Girish Chandra Murmu on 17th April 2020 and it replaced series of heline numbers launched in March aimed at attending health emergencies in priority during the lockdown.
A dedicated fleet of 10 vehicles, team of 12 professionals has been deputed on job round-the-clock for attending issues related to health emergencies, demands related to dialysis, chemotherapy, diabetes and other such ailments. Apart from the IVRS call centre 4 mobile numbers have also been made available.
Deputy Commissioner, Srinagar empanelled 13 dialysis centre across city for providing dialysis services, the expenses of which are borne by the district administration. Most of these centres are working with administration on no-profit-no-loss basis while dedicated transport facility is made available by administration.
Giving details about the initiative, Deputy Commissioner, Shahid Iqbal Choudhary informed that a total of 2992 patients have been provided assistance ever since the launch of call centre. These include 890 dialysis cases involving multiple cycles, 1115 delivered free drugs by nodal officer, 263 patients provided free life-saving/ essential drugs, 148 patients provided transportation from home to hospital and back, 12 injury cases, 51 Chemotherapy cases and 181 patients delivered / provided diabetes drugs.
The initiative aimed at attending pre-covid health issues has gained greater response from public and a large number of patients are availing the services made available. A separate fleet of vehicles has also been made available to select hospitals to provide services to patients in need of transport after discharge.
The District Administration in it’s endeavour to reach out to patients in need also included a survey of such requirements along with the ongoing door-to-door health audit and 1233 cases needing medical attention for non-covid health issues were shared with primary healthcare institutions for response.
The daily monitoring system of response to public issues related to emergency healthcare has been put in place to ensure prompt attention. Nodal officers have been appointed in all the hospitals to attend these issues. Immediately on receipt of call a ticket is generated on mobile of nodal office either in DC office, department or hospital prompting the officer to address and provide service. The ticket is closed after delivery of service and a fixed timeline is allowed, beyond which the matter is flagged to Deputy Commissioner. This system has ensured timely and effective response system.
The dedicated dialysis helpdesk in the Call centre has also generated a database of all patients in need of dialysis and other kidney ailments which has been mapped for prompt response by nearest teams. Patients in need of dialysis, chemotherapy, transportation etc can contact the call centre at 6006333308 or the mobile numbers of help desk.