Urban News

Municipal Commissioner Asheesh Sharma said health smart cards are aimed at doing away with tedious paper work. “Once the registration process and issue of health cards to patients gather momentum, we will gradually stop issuing case papers. The era of paperless hospitals is dawning in town,” he said.

Health cards, he said, would save a lot of time for patients who had to queue up for getting case papers and then lining up before the doctor. Sharma said every member of a family would get a health card.

The civic chief said the health smart cards are web-based which means the patients’ history can be obtained even by a doctor sitting in the US or UK. “Any doctor in the country or outside would be able to get the history of the patient from Pimpri-Chinchwad through Internet,” said Sharma. Pimpri-Chinchwad has a population of 15 lakh.

PCMC health chief Dr Nagkumar Kunachgi said the software for the health cards have been designed by Amruta Technology. “This year, we have a budget of Rs 3.75 crore for the health smart cards, including software and hardware,” he said.

Dr Anand Jagdale, medical superintendent of Yeshwantrao Chavan Medical Hospital, where the registration of patients and other details began, said, “The health smart cards would initially be issued only at YCM Hospital for Rs 20,” he said. Dr Jagdale said a patient coming with a health card will have also his details stored on the computer.

“If the doctor asks him to go for an X-ray, he won’t require a case paper. He will simply have to go to the X-ray depatment and the doctor will forward the details to the department,” he said. Dr Jagdale said initially the doctors will find a little more work load, but in the course of time, they will get used to it. Dr Nagkumar said after YCM Hospital, the health smart cards will be issued at all other seven PCMC hospitals.