ANAMBRA STATE GOVERNMENT SAYS ITS TELEMEDICINE STRUCTURE AIMED AT KEEPING HEALTHCARE CLOSER TO RESIDENTS

By Chris Chikelue

The Government of Anambra State has said that it is not giving up on its continuous adherence to innovation in the application of telemedicine into the healthcare delivery system.

Telemedicine was introduced by the Governor Chukwuma Soludo led administration to strengthen healthcare delivery across the state by keeping the residents closer to medical care at every given time of the day.

The concept introduced by the Governor Soludo’s government initially focused on hard-to-reach areas of the state, where access to qualified medical personnel was difficult.

To emphasize on the improved structure of telemedicine the Commissioner for Health, Dr. Afam Obidike, said the programme is being expanded to enable all residents to have easy access to quality medical personnel and improved health care.

“We started telemedicine with the hub-and-spoke approach; the hub has two medical doctors in each LGA while the ‘spoke’ refers to the Primary Health Care centers with nurses or other health workers that are directly linked to the hubs.

“What this means is that all the PHCs in Anambra State can access qualified medical doctors for accurate examination and proper medical care anywhere and at any time.”

“When patients walk into a Primary Health Care Centre in their locality and present a case, the nurse or health worker on duty reaches the hub with the aid of ICT gadgets and a doctor attends to the patient directly, online,” Commissioner explained.

Speaking on its expansion Dr. Obidike was of the opinion that it is necessary because every Anambra resident deserves quality medical care in line with the Governor Soludo administration’s policy on health care.

“We are expanding it so that every Anambra resident can access the hub, speak to a doctor and get a correct prescription from qualified medical doctors.

“This will curb the issue of self-medication and abuse in line with Governor Soludo’s programme on health care delivery.”

The Programme Officer, Dr. Ken Nwokolo was also of the opinion that with telemedicine residents of the state can access medical doctors 24 hours a day, also that residents can have access to a doctor even if the doctors in their hub are offline.

Chris Chikelue is of the Ministry of Information and Value Reformation, Anambra State