Plugging the policy gaps digitally, the Andhra Pradesh government is set to synchronise the network of state hospitals with digital health cards that are already issued to about 70% of the state population. According to the state government, the move will be among the firsts to improve healthcare services in the state. At present AP tops the list of states in creation of digital health cards in the country.
“It is not a small achievement to grant digital health cards with unique ID and bar coding to nearly 3.18 crore people against the total population of 4.7 crore in the state. Our field teams right from village secretariat worked so well as CM YS Jagan Mohan Reddy is very keen to upgrade entire health infrastructure in the state,” MT Krishna Babu, principal secretary, health and family welfare said.
The state government has already set the stage for construction of YSR village clinics in over 11,000 villages in the state. Digital health cards with 14 digit unique ID numbers will be seeded to village health clinics, PHC, community health centres, teaching hospitals and the private hospitals that have been networked with the YSR Arogyasri scheme.
As per top government officials the entire health data of the population will be digitally recorded every time the patient visited a hospital which would be accessible to senior doctors and experts in teaching hospital in case of emergency.
“Simply showing the digital health card at the super specialty hospital, either it be teaching hospital or a private network hospital, is sufficient for the patient to get immediate healthcare support from doctors as the history of the patient will be visible on the screen in a few seconds. The experts could start treatment taking the past history of the patient into consideration without taking much time,” Krishna Babu said.
According to Babu, the state government had started imparting training to field-staff to be deployed at village health clinics on recording all health details of the people so that it would act as future reference for treatment.
Interestingly, 95% of the population in AP has been covered under YSR Arogyasri scheme under which the state government has been providing free treatment to over 2,500 procedures including surgeries. Comprehensive treatment for chronic diseases like cancer and Chronic Kidney Disease (CKD) are also being covered under Arogyasri.