The Bruhat Bengaluru Mahanagara Palike (BBMP), along with Bengaluru Smart City Ltd. (BSCL), is setting up the central clinical command centre to provide virtual medical consultation, especially of specialists like cardiologists, nephrologists, among others, in various primary health centres (PHCs) and referral hospitals under the BBMP.
The BBMP recently invited applications from eligible doctors to work in the smart clinics. Though announced in 2020, not much headway has been made. But officials said now the preparation is going on and it will be launched soon.
According to officials, the smart clinics will have several digital interventions, including online consultations, three-way counselling/consultations between specialists, PHC doctors and patients, and creating of a digital database with complete data of the patients visiting the PHCs.
Estimated around 17 lakh citizens, especially those belonging to lower socio-economic groups, visit the 141 PHCs, six referrals, and around 30 maternity hospitals in the city. With the lack of specialists, many are forced to visit private hospitals.
“The smart clinics will be operational soon. This command centre will be open round-the-clock and audio-visual consultations with specialists from all fields will be available for online consultation,” explained a BBMP health department official.
“The integrated command centre, which had been established for COVID-19 management, would be used to integrate all the existing health infrastructure in the BBMP,” the official added.
The State Cabinet this July approved the establishment of 438 namma clinics across urban local bodies, including Bengaluru City Corporation wards, as per the State Budget.
These clinics will provide services for the detection of non-communicable diseases and referral for higher treatment to specialists. All wards of the BBMP will have at least one clinic. They will be modelled on the lines of the Union government’s health and wellness centres.
