NICH establishes telemedicine clinic

'Under the project, doctors will provide assistance to medical practitioners at five other hospitals in Sindh'

KARACHI: Sindh Health and Population Welfare Minister Dr Azra Pechuho acclaimed the National Institute for Child Health's (NICH) services towards child healthcare and its initiative to establish a telemedicine clinic while speaking at the inauguration ceremony of the clinic at NICH on Friday.

The hospital is facilitating child healthcare in the best possible way and caters to children from across the province and the telemedicine clinic project will help improve the provision of healthcare facilities at the hospital, much to the advantage of the patients.

Addressing the inauguration ceremony, NICH Head Professor Dr Raza Jamal said that as a part of the telemedicine project, teams of doctors and other healthcare professionals will provide assistance to medical practitioners at five hospitals in Sindh. He further said that regular clinics have been started at four hospitals connected with the telemedicine clinic, where lectures by foreign experts will be organised via video conferencing to train postgraduate students and doctors.

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Drawing attention to the problem of hospitals having to cater to a larger number of patients than their capacity, Dr Pechuho said that the quality of medical treatment is affected by the increase in the number of patients. The telemedicine clinic will help maintain the standard of health facilities by imparting expertise to medical professionals, overcoming the shortage of medicines to some extent and improving telecommunication services.

Dr Pechuho said that paediatric hospitals across Sindh will be connected to NICH via the telemedicine clinic.

However, at the same time, she pointed out that there are some flaws in the Expanded Programme on Immunisation, which need to be addressed.

Moreover, the provincial health minister apprised the attendees of the ceremony that the Sindh government has started a programme, Zindagi Mehfooz [Safe Life], and that Sindh Institute of Child Health will begin operations soon. She also said that regional blood centres will be established in the province through which blood will be supplied to government hospitals.

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Dengue

Speaking on the occasion, she also shifted the blame for the rise in dengue cases in Sindh to the local government bodies.

Dr Pechuho said that Karachi Metropolitan Corporation (KMC), local government bodies and Sindh Solid Waste Management Board (SSWMB) need to launch a large-scale fumigation drive in Karachi to curb the breeding of mosquitoes that carry the dengue virus. Additionally, KMC, SSWMB and local government bodies should take measures that pools of stagnant water are not formed, she added.

Sounding alarm bells, she pointed out that 4,400 cases of dengue have been reported across Sindh, however, adding that the situation is worse in Islamabad and Punjab.

Speaking with respect to the responsibilities of the Sindh Health Department, Dr Pechuho said that the department's primary job is to improve the standard of medical facilities in the province. Though, she acknowledged that the department needs to devise a pre-monsoon strategy to be able to combat dengue effectively in the future. Dr Pechuho also stressed the need to launch an awareness programme and emphasised that people should adopt preventive measures to guard themselves against the virus.

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According to the provincial health minister, heavy rainfall during monsoon this year resulted in a dengue outbreak. However, the situation is much worse in Karachi than the rest of Sindh as it is a densely populated city, she said.

Rabies

Talking about rabies, Dr Jamal absolved the government of the responsibility for controlling the spread of the disease. He said that the government cannot be blamed for everything and it has provided up to 18,000 rabies vaccines for free. In this case, people are at fault for not taking the vaccines, he added.

He referred to a recent incident of 11-year-old Deedar, a resident of Tando Adam, dying of rabies about a week ago. He was bitten by a rabid dog about 20 days ago, following which he developed rabies and eventually died because he was not vaccinated, said Dr Jamal.

Health Secretary Saeed Awan was also present on the occasion.

Published in The Express Tribune, October 12^th, 2019.