Doctor on Wheels: Free telemedicine mobile camp inaugurated in J&K’s Kathua

Jammu, Jun 17 (PTI) Union Minister Jitendra Singh on Saturday dedicated to the public a free telemedicine mobile camp in Jammu and Kashmir’s Kathua district.

This is the third phase of the Union Territory’s first-ever mobile telemedicine service — Doctor on Wheels — being provided with funds purely from non-government sources.

The first phase covered more than 60 villages in the remote Gandoh area of Doda district. The second phase covered far-flung villages along the International Border in Kathua district.

“This free telemedicine facility at Billawar today will overcome the problems of accessibility, availability and affordability,” Singh, the Union Minister of State in the Prime Minister’s Office said, after inaugurating the service at the Mandli block in Billawar tehsil.

The minister, who represents the Udhampur parliamentary constituency that also covers Kathua and Doda, said all the three obstacles such as quality of services, doctors and assistance, the distance of travel and the cost of consultation or treatment are targeted and resolved efficiently through this facility.

“Ordinarily, (treatment at) a metro hospital will cost a patient more than Rs 50,000 and may take two to three weeks’ time. This type of free telemedicine mobile camp will solve all the problems, especially for those from weak socio-economic backgrounds,” he said.

The minister said the camp at Mandli is being run by two startup groups from north and south India, respectively.

Emphasising that India today is technologically at par with the most developed countries, Singh asserted that these services are on the same level as ones provided anywhere in the world. He also claimed that advanced robotic surgeries would be done in the future using telemedicine services.

“The mantra of Prime Minister Narendra Modi — ‘seva, samparan and start-up’ — is being followed at these free telemedicine mobile camps with extraordinary medical facilities for people from weak socio-economic backgrounds as this government is dedicated to the poor,” he said.

India, under Modi, surprised the world by administering 220 crore Covid vaccine doses through a fully digital platform not even imagined by developed Western countries, Singh said.