India’s first-ever “Air Dispensary” based in a helicopter will start soon in the Northeast region for which the Union Ministry of Development of Northeast (DONER) has contributed Rs 25 crore as part of the initial funding for this initiative.
The Union Ministry of Northeast/DoNER is ”keenly pursuing” the proposal so that by the beginning of 2018, this could be ”the Union Government’s gift to the people of Northeast,” Union Minister of State (independent charge) for Development of North Eastern Region (DoNER) and PMO Jitendra Singh said.
He was speaking at a meeting with representatives of the aviation sector and helicopter service Pawan Hans. Dr Jitendra Singh said his ministry had been mulling the idea of introducing a helicopter-based dispensary/OPD service in such far flung and remote areas, where no doctor or medical facility was available and the patient, in need, also did not have any access to any medical care.
The proposal put forward by the DONER ministry has been ”accepted and is in the final stages of process in the Union Ministry of Civil Aviation,” Dr Singh said.
He disclosed that even today, nearly 1/3rd of India’s population did not have access to proper hospital bed care, as a result of which, poor patients living in remote areas remained deprived of crucial medical care.
The experiment being introduced in the Northeast, at the behest of the Ministry of Northeast/DoNER, can also be emulated in other hill states having difficult topography like Jammu and Kashmir and Himachal Pradesh, he suggested.
To begin with, the helicopter will be based at two locations, namely Imphal in Manipur and Meghalaya in Shillong. Both of these cities have premier post-graduate medical institutes from where specialist doctors, along with the necessary equipment and paramedical staff, would be able to move into the helicopter and hold a dispensary/OPD in different locations across the eight North Eastern states.
On its way back, he said, the same helicopter can also transport a sick patient, requiring admission, to a city hospital. Giving an account of other new helicopter service plans for the Northeast, Dr Singh said, three twin-engine helicopters are planned to be placed for initial operation on six routes in the region around Imphal, Guwahati and Dibrugarh, an official release here said. (AGENCIES)