Chief minister Tirath Singh Rawat inaugurated ‘Garud’ the telemedicine service started by All India Institute of Medical Sciences (AIIMS) Rishikesh on Monday. A total of 898 trained medical and paramedical students will provide relevant information and consultation to citizens in all 110 Tehsils through this service.
Speaking at the inauguration of the telemedicine service, the chief minister appreciated the initiative taken by AIIMS Rishikesh to involve youths of the medical and paramedical fraternity. He said that the state government is making consistent efforts to ensure that as many doctors as possible are posted in the state. The biggest challenge in the current times is to strengthen connectivity and health systems in the border areas of the state, he said. Rawat said that it had been noticed in the past few days that while the Covid situation appeared to have stabilised in the urban areas, the graph is rising in the rural areas. Considering this, all the officials concerned have been directed to establish control rooms at each block. Before this, control rooms were being made at the district level. The chief minister further said that the state government is presenting the testing data in a transparent manner.
The testing in Uttarakhand is more than the national average which clearly shows that more testing is being conducted in the state. The state government is also making efforts to ensure that all necessary preparations are completed before the onset of the third wave of Covid-19.
The AIIMS Rishikesh director Dr Ravikant said that the institute had sought applications for project Garud from medical and paramedical students from across the nation. A total of 1,621 students registered for the programme and out of these a total of 898 students were selected for the Garud service. He said that these include 621 MBBS and BDS doctors and 277 students connected to paramedical courses.
Vidhan Sabha speaker and Rishikesh MLA, Prem Chand Agrawal, Rishikesh mayor Anita Mamgai and others were also present on the occasion.
