Shri Bandaru Dattatreya, Minister of State (Independent Charge) for Labour & Employment launched the 2nd phase of Tele-medicine services for providing specialist medical services at a distance to insured workers here today. In this phase ESIS dispensary, Dimapur (Nagaland), Shillong (Meghalaya), Agartala (Tripura) has now been connected to ESIC Hospital, Joka, Kolkata w.e.f. 1st December, 2016. The telemedicine services is going to bridge the gaps between presence of beneficiaries at different North-Eastern States locations and availability of Specialist and Super-specialist Consultation services.
The first phase was launched in September, 2016 by connecting Employees State Insurance Corporation’s(ESIC) Model Hospital Basaidarapur with three ESIS dispensaries at Katihar (Bihar), Unnao (UP) and Rudarpur (Uttrachal).
On the occasion, the Minister interacted with some workers visiting these far off Dispensaries for medical consultation. Shri Santi Jiban Chakraborty from Agartala , Shri Madalet Marboh from Shillong and Md Kalamuddin from Dimapur were overjoyed to see the Minister enquiring about their health and the facilities being given to them. They were relaxed and satisfied to receive consultations from specialist doctors from ESIC Hospital Joka, Kolkata through this Tele-Medicine Services of ESIC.
Smt. M. Sathiyavathy, Secretary, Ministry of Labour & Employment, Shri Heera Lal Samariya, Additional Secretary, Shri Deepak Kumar,Director General, ESIC, Medical Commissioners and other Officers of the Ministry and ESIC were present in the function.
New Initiative
ESI Corporation has been providing health care and other social security benefits to the workers of specified wage group since the last 65 years as a labour welfare measure. Under this new initiatives, ESIC has launched Pilot Project of Tele-medicine Services at 11 ESI locations at NO Cost; in coordination with Health Informatics and Electronic Division (HIED), C-DAC, Mohali, under the aegis of “Digital inclusive and Smart Community (DISC) which is a part of Digital India Programme of Government of India. The three hospitals (HUB) and eight (SPOKE) associated Dispensaries are as under:-
| No. | Name of Hospital/HUB | Name of Dispensaries/Spoke | Remarks |
| Phase-1 | ESIC Model Hospital, Basaidarapur, New Delhi | 1. Rudrapur, Uttrakhand2. Unnao, Uttar Pradesh3. Kathiyar, Bihar | Ist phase was inaugurated on 6thSept, 2016 by Hon’ble Minister of Labour and 64 patients have taken benefit from this service since then. |
| Phase –II | ESIC Model Hospital, Joka, Kolkata | 1. Agartala (Tripura)2. Shillong (Meghalaya)3. Dimapur (Nagaland) | Hon’ble Minister of Labour inaugurated IInd phase on 1st December, 2016. |
| Phase –III | ESIC Model Hospital, Rajajinagar,Bangalore | 1. ESIS Dispensary Raigarh, Chattisgarh2. Rain Basera Bhawan, Khorba, Chattisgarh | IIIrd phase will be started tentatively in last week of December, |
The three chosen HUBS are Post-graduate Medical Institutes, so that both, Super-speciality & Speciality door-step consultative services may be provided to the ESI beneficiaries. The dispensary is chosen Spokes from those States where there is no secondary care of ESI Hospital or such ESI Hospital is still under construction.
