HP Telestroke project saves 585 lives in the State

SHIMLA: The Government Spokesperson said that today the “world stroke day” was celebrated across the State. The theme of this year was “Minutes can save lives.” He said that Himachal Pradesh is the first state to start free stroke care, under National Programme for Prevention and Control of Cancer, Diabetes, Cardiovascular Diseases & Stroke (NPCDCS). This initiative has increased the survival chances and recovery from stroke and has ensured that every patients get access to stroke care in time. He added that under free stroke care, till now total of 585 patients have been saved, who reached the medical facility within the window period of four hours after stroke.
The Government Spokesperson informed that under this scheme, the Government hospitals with CT-Scan facility are looped in the stroke care. In Himachal Pradesh there are 17 stroke care centers notified. These are established in all of the 12 Districts, 2 in Medical Colleges (IGMC Shimla and Dr. RPGMC Tanda), 3 in Zonal Hospitals (Shimla, Dharamshala and Mandi), 7 in Regional Hospitals (Bilaspur, Nahan, Solan, Chamba, Hamirpur, Kullu and Una), 7 in Civil Hospitals (Rampur, Rohru, Poanta sahib, Palampur, Nurpur and Sunder Nagar) and 1 in Community Health Centre Nalagarh. He further added that use of social networking sites like “Whatsapp” is being used for transmitting CT-scan images from trained medical officers working in these centers to neurologists for consultation who are available on phone 24×7.
The Government Spokesperson that such schemes are improving outreach services for all the citizens by leveraging information technology platforms innovatively without incurring any extra cost on infrastructure and manpower.
He appealed that incase of any incidence of stroke the patient should be immediately brought to the designated stroke centres within first four crucial hours, when the lives can be saved by timely treatment of thrombolization. He further appealed that the public should download HP Telstroke android application from google playstore that enables them to call 108 ambulance and pinpoints the nearest equipped stroke treatment centre at one click.