India-funded telemed centre to link Nepal, Lucknow and Chandigarh

KATHMANDU - A pledge made by Indian Prime Minister Manmohan Singh during the 13th SAARC Summit in Dhaka in 2005 has borne fruit with the establishment of the SAARC Telemedicine Centre in the Kathmandu valley that would link top institutes in Lucknow and Chandigarh.

Nepal’s caretaker Prime Minister Madhav Kumar Nepal Friday inaugurated the telemedicine centre at Patan Hospital in Lalitpur, set up with an Indian assistance of nearly 4.8 crore Nepalese rupees, under the South Asian Association for Regional Cooperation (SAARC) project.

India is fully funding the project to set up telemedicine network in the entire SAARC region as part of the assurance given by Manmohan Singh, a statement by the Indian embassy in Kathmandu said.

The Lalitpur telemedicine centre, the memorandum of understanding (MoU) for which was signed in 2009, will enable the host institution to receive consultation and Continuing Medical Education (CME) services from select hospitals in SAARC countries.

From India, such services would be provided by the super-specialty Sanjay Gandhi Postgraduate Institute of Medical Sciences in Lucknow, and the Postgraduate Institute of Medical Education and Research in Chandigarh.

Nepal has special ties with the Chandigarh institute.

Ram Baran Yadav, the first president of Nepal, trained there and will be flying to Chandigarh to attend the annual convocation of the institute where he will be conferred an honorary degree.

Two other SAARC countries have already been linked up.

The Jigme Dorji Wangchuck National Referral Hospital in Bhutan and Indira Gandhi Institute of Child Health in Kabul are already part of the SAARC telemedicine network. With the inauguration of the centre at Patan Hospital, Nepal becomes the third SAARC country to get this facility.

The SAARC telemedicine centres are envisioned to extend the geographic reach of medical care and provide people in remote and rural areas access to medical specialists. Telemedicine technology also offers training and educational benefits to medical professionals at reduced costs.

Telecommunications Consultants India Limited (TCIL), which is also part of the first joint venture in Nepal in the telecom sector, is the implementing agency for the telemedicine project.

Besides the telemedicine centre, a SAARC tele-education centre is being established at the National Centre for Education Development in Nepal’s Bhaktapur district.