NEW DELHI: The Centre is likely to launch the digital delivery of healthcare services together with private sector stakeholders within the next 1 to 2 years with pilot programs underway in as many as six Union Territories, a top government official said. "We are looking forward to implementing the National Digital Health Mission (NDHM) rigorously. Digital technologies have shown us the way. We will be able to bring all stakeholders onto the platform in 1 to 2 years' time, and are currently doing pilots in six Union Territories," Ram Sewak Sharma, chief executive of the National Health Authority NHA ) told ETTelecom. "We are having a registry of healthcare providers, hospitals and laboratories, and together with them, we can develop a platform for health services delivery to achieve the objective of the national digital health mission," the official said.On August 15, 2020, Prime Minister Narendra Modi launched the ambitious nationwide health program, and said that the initiative will bring "revolution" in the healthcare sector, adding that one health ID would contain medical information of patients.Sharma, further said that such an initiative could be a win-win situation where private hospitals would have an access to medical records, and would be able to increase their reach, and provide services to rural India without having any physical presence.The IT-focussed national program has a capacity to conduct 500,000 consultations every day, and has already created nearly 200,000 unique IDs for pilots in Dadra & Nagar Haveli, Andaman & Nicobar, Ladakh, Chandigarh, Puducherry and Lakshadweep.The second wave of contagious Covid-19 outbreak has, however, exposed the country's poor healthcare infrastructure with the daily viral cases surpassing 300,000.

Source: Economic Times April 23, 2021 11:51 UTC