Dr. Jitendra Singh calls for a revival of free Tele-Consultation facilities in all districts of Jammu and Kashmir for rural and home isolation patients

Chairing a COVID review meeting with all the 20 District Magistrates of J&K, the Dr. Jitendra Singh also advised them to set up War Rooms to share positive news and best practices

Union Minister of State (Independent Charge) Development of North Eastern Region (DoNER), MoS PMO, Personnel, Public Grievances, Pensions, Atomic Energy and Space, Dr. Jitendra Singh today held a comprehensive COVID review meeting with all the 20 District Magistrates of the UT of Jammu and Kashmir and asked them to revive the free Tele-Consultationfacilities in a big way for rural and home isolation patients.

He said, guidelines already exist for the empanelment of recognized doctors for teleconsultation on a shift wise basis and this will go a long way in reducing the burden of patients at District Hospitals through the indiscriminate referral system. The Minister also asked the District Chiefs to rope in NGOs and Youth Groups, who have come forward in providing free medical consultation on phone. The move will also negate the self-styled remedy being forwarded in social media to fight the pandemic, he added.

Dr. Jitendra Singh has directed the District Collectors to set up COVID War Rooms and enlist the support of Elected Representatives, Doctors, and members of Civil Society and share the positive news and best practices of COVID management with media at regular intervals.

Dr. Jitendra Singh asked the Collectors to undertake the people friendly Vaccination drive on a mission mode by involving Elected Representatives, Religious Heads, and Civil Society at large.

He said Community Participation will also help in overcoming vaccine hesitancy, if any, through mass awareness campaigns. Referring to Prime Minister Shri Narendra Modi’srecent interactions with state and district officials, Dr. Jitendra Singh said, continuous efforts are being made to increase the supply of Covid-19 vaccines on a very large scale. He said, all the States and UTs will get a schedule of the next 15 days so that they can prioritize the vaccination drive in each district.

Responding to some of the issues flagged by District Magistrates, Dr. Jitendra Singh advised that Postgraduate and final-year undergraduate medical students and nursing staff may be engaged at GMC and other associated hospitals to fight the problem of lack of human resource. He also called for a short term training program for the operation of ventilators by recruiting retired doctors and enrolling medical students till the pandemic is over

Dr. Jitendra Singh said that he has been regularly in touch with administration in different districts as well as the Medical authorities of all the Government Medical Colleges in both the regions of Jammu & Kashmir including the Sher-I-Kashmir Institute of Medical Science (SKIMS), Soura and all the bottlenecks are being fixed on a day-to-day basis.

District Collectors of Jammu, Srinagar, Udhampur, Bandipora, Poonch, Rajouri, Pulwama, Baramulla, Doda, Kathua, Shopian, Kupwara, Ganderbal, Reasi, Samba, Kulgam, Kishtwar, Ramban, Badgam, and Anantnag joined the video meeting on COVID-19 review and future preparedness.

All the District Officials have apprised the Minister that there is a continued plateauing in daily new COVID-19 cases over the past few days. However, Dr. Jitendra Singh cautioned them that it is not time to loosen the grip till the battle against the pandemic is won in the entire country.