For Adivasis living in 300 hamlets inside the forest in Wayanad's Noolpuzha gram panchayat, the long trek to the health centres braving the attacks of elephant herds will soon become a thing of the past.
Instead, they will be visiting the telemedicine centres in their settlements and engage in real-time videoconference with the healthcare givers at the Family Health Centre (FHC) in Noolpuzha. The doctors will diagnose their illnesses and advise trained volunteers to administer medicines to the patients.
The launch of telemedicine services for Adivasis will be another feather in the illustrious cap of Kerala's healthcare sector.
Besides, Noolpuzha will become the first gram panchayat in the State to set up telemedicine centres in tribal hamlets.
The project is expected to be a success, going by the positive responses from Adivasi communities to the pilot project at Manimunda hamlet, which is home to more than 200 tribal families.
Noolpuzha gram panchayat president Shobhankumar said the pilot project at Manimunda has been a huge success. “At Manimunda, we set up the telemedicine centre at an anganawadi. The humongous support gives us the confidence that Adivasis will make use of the facilities across the gram panchayat," he said.
Tribals constitute 43 per cent of the total population in Noolpuzha, which lies 35km south-west of the district headquarters Kalpetta and shares borders with Tamil Nadu.
Shobhankumar said the project will be officially launched after getting approval from the Integrated Tribal Development Programme (ITDP). “The project requires grass-root level support and financial support from the tribal department,” he said.
What is telemedicine?
Telemedicine combines the use of telecommunication and information technology to provide clinical health care from a distance. It permits communication between patient and the healthcare givers as well as transmission of data from one site to another.
In Wayanad, telemedicine is expected to bring Adivasis who are otherwise reluctant to visit hospitals into the healthcare system.
The telemedicine project is the brainchild of Noolpuzha gram panchayat. It is being supported by Kudumbashree (Kearla's neighbourhood self help groups), Family Health Centre in Noolpuzha and the State government's tribal department.
The civic body has also roped in Dr K Jithendranath, the first medical practitioner in Wayanad to set up telemedicine centre in Kurichiad village inside the Wayanad Wildlife Sanctuary two decades ago, as the project's mentor.
“I am happy to associate with this project,” he said.
Jithendranath had given free medical aid to tribal population for seven years through the telemedicine centre. He wound up the centre after the government rehabilitated majority of the forest-dwellers in the village.
“We had trained volunteers to administer medicines with the help of doctors through videoconferencing. In case of a medical emergency, they used to check patients' blood pressure and administer lifesaving medicines,” he said.
Functions of telemedicine centres
The telemedicine system establishes Grass-root Health Centres (GHC) at tribal settlements.
These are tele-connected to Family Health Centres (FHCs) or District Hospitals (DHs), where the services of doctors and nurses are available round the clock. Both PHCs and DHs will have videoconferencing facilities. Health service workers operate these facilities, who will provide medical support to the patients based on the prescription of the doctors.
"The telemedicine centres will clarify doubts about medicines, advise women on malnutrition and diet and provide guidance to aged about certain ailments," said medical officer at the Noolpuzha FHC, Dr Dahar Muhammed. "We will also conduct awareness classes to residents about the precautions to be taken against seasonal disease outbreak and medicines to treat them," he said.
The Noolpuzha FHC had won the National Health Mission's award for the best health centre in India in 2018.
Technical support
Centre for Social Computing and Information Society (C4S), a collective of techno-wizards in Wayanad, provides the much-needed technical support to the project.
C4S has built its own telemedicine software consisting of video and audio communication and other modules.
Each telemedicine centre is equipped with wireless connectivity device, micro computer, monitor and video conferencing system.
"We use the technology approved by Keltron, the state-owned technology manufacturing company. It is cost-effective," said Roshy Falgunan is the Managing Director of C4S.
(The writer is an independent journalist based in Wayanad)
