The Hindu : SAT, W&C hospitals to be brought into network

Online edition of India's National Newspaper
Tuesday, Apr 08, 2003

Southern States

Southern States - Kerala-Thiruvananthapuram

SAT, W&C hospitals to be brought into network

By Our Staff Reporter

THIRUVANANTHAPURAM April 7. The City Corporation is drawing up plans to extend the first phase of its e-governance project by setting up computerised facilities for birth registration at two government hospitals.

Preliminary discussions were held with the superintendents of the SAT hospital at the Medical College and the Women and Children's Hospital at Thycaud.

Corporation sources said the hospitals had shown a positive response to the plan. Under the proposal, the Corporation will foot the expense to install computers for day-to-day registration of births at the two hospitals.

``At the end of day, the data will be transferred to floppies and taken to the Corporation headquarters where it will be added to the general database the very next day. This will ensure easy availability of birth certificates,'' said a senior Corporation functionary.

The second phase of the e-governance project proposes the networking of most of the hospitals in the city to the Corporation office for instantaneous data transfer. "This will further reduce the time for issue of birth certificates,'' said an official.

The SAT hospital and the W&C hospital were selected for the highest number of births recorded daily. On an average, about 60 to 70 births are registered daily at each of these institutions. The Corporation is also thinking about bringing the death registration at the Medical College Hospital within the ambit of the programme.

The computers to be installed at the hospitals will be housed in cabins attached to the office of the superintendent. The Corporation will post two junior health inspectors at each of the hospitals to verify the data entry and ensure accuracy of records. The issue of birth and death certificates is the first application to be taken up at the computerised counter coming up in the Corporation headquarters. The data entry of back records for the last five years has been completed up to January 2003.

Meanwhile, the Corporation is hoping to secure Government clearance to get the computerisation project off the ground this month.

The project had run into a roadblock last month after the District Planning Committee ordered a review citing procedural irregularities.

The Mayor, J. Chandra, said the Government had issued an order clearing the project. "The trial run will be conducted soon and we expect the project to take off by the middle of the month,' she said.

The Corporation office is being equipped as the hub of the e-governance project. A spacious lobby with a computerised counter is nearing completion on the ground floor near the main entrance to the office.

The design of the lobby was taken up by the Information Kerala Mission, which also provides the software for the project. Landscaping of the office grounds is on.

The servers and terminals in the front office will be installed soon. The lobby will also have seating facilities for customers with provision for air conditioning. It will be equipped with an interactive help desk and an electronic token dispensing system for queue management.

The initial phase of the project involves computerisation of the Health and Revenue Departments. The Town Planning, Engineering and General sections will be computerised later.

Taken up under the Plan Campaign, the project envisages a computer network linking the headquarters at Palayam with the 10 zonal offices.

Printer friendly page
Send this article to Friends by E-Mail

Southern States

Stories in this Section

SAT, W&C hospitals to be brought into network

City development: all-party delegation to meet CM

Saraswathi Vilasom Palace to be protected

Heart disease turns major killer