By Asim Hussain
ISLAMABAD: Prime Minister’s Focal Person on Shelter Homes, Naseem ur Rehman has said telehealth kiosks, set up at the federal capital’s ‘Panahgahs’, were getting tremendous response as it provided free treatment to a large number of dwellers with underlying conditions.
So far, around 300 to 400 residents of the capital’s shelter homes had availed access to medical care and consultation with online doctors, who were part of EZ Shifa network in Canada, the United States of America and Pakistan, the focal person told the media after visiting the ‘Panahgah’, located at Tarnol, Islamabad.
He said the initiative was taken by the shelter homes’ management in collaboration with EZ Shifa, which was a private company, virtually connecting volunteer teams of doctors, from Pakistan and abroad with marginalized segments of the society.
He said telehealth kiosks were fully functional at multiple ‘Panahgahs’ located in various areas of Islamabad including G-9, Tarlai and Tarnol. The focal person expressed the hope that 50 ‘Panahgahs’, operational across the country, would get the facility by the end of February. Explaining the way, Kiosks operated, he said the healthcare staff deputed at the ‘Panahgahs’ helped the residents feed their main vital signs (body temperature, blood pressure etc) in the kiosks after connecting them with the online available medical professionals.
“Once connected, the patient gets an opportunity to have face to face interaction with the doctor so that he could fully explain his condition and avail prescription in printed form from the printing system attached with the kiosk,†he remarked. To a query, he said the kiosks were designed by keeping the coronavirus standard operating procedures under the consideration to reduce the risk of virus outbreak at the facility. It had thermogun and sanitizer facilities as well. He said the initiative was part of the ‘Promoting Healthy Lifestyle’ campaign, launched at the shelter homes in the wake of first wave of coronavirus pandemic.
