e-Health Card Facilities To Be Implemented In Delhi By August 2021: Arvind Kejriwal

Delhi Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal on Tuesday held a review meeting on the health information management system (HMIS) and e-health card facilities for city residents, and said these are likely to be implemented by August next year.

HIMS will be implemented to provide effective healthcare services to the residents of Delhi, in the most efficient manner, through technologically empowered healthcare processes, the city government said in a statement.

"It is our duty to ensure that there is no inconvenience to the people of Delhi. This management system should be able to provide all healthcare facilities to the people. Other than that, by 2021, every resident of Delhi visiting a hospital should be issued a card to avail of the benefits of government healthcare services. Post the issuing, we have to ensure that this card is integrated with the HIMS," Kejriwal said.

Chief Minister said that with the implementation of the e-Health card, the healthcare facilities will be extended to all city residents seeking treatment in Delhi government hospitals. 

The health officials gave a presentation to the Chief Minister for the implementation of HIMS and issuing of the e-health cards. 

Under HIMS, a web portal and a mobile app will be launched to store a database of the health information of the residents of Delhi, the chief minister was quoted as saying in the statement.

The HMIS will be implemented by August 2021 in all Delhi government hospitals, he said.

There will also be a centralised health helpline, for extension of uninterrupted healthcare facilities to the residents of Delhi. The Delhi government will set up a call centre to provide patients with tele-counselling, address information requests, address queries and complaints, and follow-ups, the statement said.

The e-health will be a QR code-based card to identify and track demographic and basic clinical details of a patient. Through the card, residents of Delhi will be mapped for all eligible schemes and programmes, and the card will also be integrated with the HMIS for smooth information exchange. 

Delhi Health Minister Satyendar Jain said, "To ensure an effective reach of healthcare facilities to the people, we will also link call centre facilities to the app launched under the HIMS. This will resolve the issues of people effectively."

"This system will also ensure the availability of a doctor for the people 24x7," he said.

HMIS seeks to target the healthcare delivery process. All the patient care services, hospital administration, budgeting and planning, supply chain management, and back-end services and processes will be brought under the system, the statement said.

As far as the deployment model is concerned, the entire system will be on the cloud and digitised. This will enable the citizens to avail information on one platform, which will help them in emergency cases, it added.

"With this, Delhi will become the only state to have a cloud-based health management system. This facility will also be extended to private hospitals in the future," the statement said.