Date:06/07/2007 URL: http://www.thehindu.com/2007/07/06/stories/2007070655070400.htm

Andhra Pradesh - Hyderabad

Rural healthcare helpline 1056 to be launched

Special Correspondent

Consultancy by eminent doctors and specialists
Health & Medical Research Institute newly established

HYDERABAD: A rural healthcare scheme, which will offer consultancy by eminent doctors and specialists for any ailment, is being launched in the State on August 15.

A new organisation named Health & Medical Research Institute (HMRI) has been formed for this purpose in partnership with Satyam Computers. The Government has taken up this scheme as the ambulance service being offered in partnership with Satyam through Emergency Medicare & Research Institute (EMRI) is found to be successful.

The HMRI service will be available round the clock on toll-free number 1056. The Government will bear the expenditure incurred on the scheme while Satyam Computers will offer the necessary technology.

Draft modalities to go ahead with the implementation of the unique scheme were approved by Chief Minister Y. S. Rajasekhara Reddy at a meeting here on Thursday with Health & Family Welfare Minister S. Chandrasekhar and senior officials.

The Minister later told reporters that the specialists who would respond to the calls on phone, would identify the disease and indicate the name of the hospital where the best treatment was available for the ailment—be it diarrhoea or cancer.