CSCs to start telemedicine services in rural areas from next month; check details

Government's essential public utility services provider Common Service Centres (CSCs) will now provide telemedicine services in collaboration with the Ministry of Ayush through video conferencing in rural areas. For this service, CSCs will use BharatNet broadband network of the Department of Telecommunications (DoT). According to an IANS report, the service will be first launched in Tamil Nadu from next month and it will be extended in other states later.

The network will work on low bandwidth and doesn`t need broadband connection. The telemedicine service will be available round-the-clock via CSC`s video conferencing platform, the report said.  For providing this service in Tamil Nadu, 100 CSCs have been already been selected.

To run this scheme, Ayush Ministry will arrange doctors for low-cost health services to rural people at their doorsteps. Initially, the service will be available for free, but later there may be some nominal charges to recover the cost of service, it said. This initiative has been launched with the aim of bringing down cost of treatment. The plan is to encourage Siddha system of medicine in Tamil Nadu, the report said. For this purpose, 100 CSCs have been selected.

Other systems of alternative medicine such as homeopathy and ayurveda will also be made available under the initiative after Siddha, it said. The government launched CSCs for delivery of essential public utility services such as welfare schemes, financial services, among others.