‘Private agency to manage ops under state oversight’
Specialist docs to guide ICU treatment remotely
Govind Sharma
JAMMU, May 16: In a landmark move to enhance critical care services, the Jammu and Kashmir Government is set to introduce Tele-ICU facilities across seven new Government Medical Colleges (GMCs), enabling critically ill patients to receive expert treatment from India’s top specialists without leaving the region.
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Official sources told Excelsior that the launch of Tele-ICU services in the GMCs of Anantnag, Baramulla, Doda, Udhampur, Rajouri, Kathua and Handwara has been proposed in view of the shortage of trained manpower in critical care at these institutions, which often results in referrals and delayed treatments.
The Tele-ICU (Tele-Intensive Care Unit) model uses advanced audio-visual communication and real-time patient data sharing to allow critical care specialists from across India to remotely monitor and guide treatment for ICU patients in these healthcare facilities in J&K.
The service, which will function on a hub-and-spoke model, connects each GMC-Anantnag, Baramulla, Doda, Udhampur, Rajouri, Kathua and Handwara-as a spoke center to a central specialist hub. This hub will provide 24×7 remote support, while local doctors and medical teams at the GMCs collaborate with national experts using secure, high-speed data and video communication platforms.
To operationalize the service, the Government has engaged a private agency to provide trained medical and technical staff at the spoke centers, while retaining oversight of service quality and protocol adherence. Senior health officials, including Principals of the participating GMCs, will supervise implementation and daily monitoring.
Real-time patient data-including vital signs, reports, and imaging-will be continuously streamed to the central hub, allowing for swift expert decision-making and immediate responses in emergencies. This marks a major shift from the previous practice of referring critical patients to distant facilities in Jammu or Srinagar, often resulting in treatment delays due to logistical challenges.
According to sources, infrastructure installation is nearly complete, and the services, to be operated under the Public-Private Partnership (PPP) mode, will be launched shortly. The introduction of Tele-ICUs is expected to significantly reduce the need for patient transfers, accelerate critical care decisions, and improve survival outcomes-particularly in remote and hilly districts of the Union Territory.
Approved by the Central Government, the initiative aims to bridge the gap in healthcare access and bring high-quality critical care to the region’s most underserved areas.
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