Veterans officers of the Armed Forces Medical Services requested to register themselves on e-Sehat portal

Photo for representation. Reuters

Vijay Mohan

Tribune News Service

Chandigarh, May 1

With the second wave of the COVID-19 pandemic overwhelming the medical infrastructure in the country, the Ministry of Defence (MoD) today appealed to retired armed forces doctors to render their service through online platforms.

“The country has been experiencing the second surge of COVID-19 pandemic since the past one month which needs an accelerated optimised time-bound synergic effort at a national level with the aim of reducing mortality and morbidity,” a memo issued today by the Directorate General Armed Forces Medical Services in the MoD states.

Pointing out that the nation as a whole, including the Armed Forces, have been contributing their might in efforts to contain the pandemic and provide all possible assistance to the countrymen, the memo adds that the veterans constitute a large group of the Armed Forces family who have served the nation with honour and are motivated, highly trained professionals who still have a lot to offer for a national cause.

“Hence all veterans officers of the Armed Forces Medical Services are requested to register themselves on e-Sehat portal wherein they can offer their guidance, counselling and advice to many of their fellow countrymen and help provide succour in this hour of need,” the memo states.

According to reports, Chief of Defence Staff Gen Bipin Rawat, conveyed to the Prime Minister in a briefing earlier this week that Armed Forces doctors who retired and those who took pre-mature retirement in the last two years are also being recalled to serve in COVID-19 care facilities located in proximity of their residences. In addition, doctors on staff appointments at formation headquarters are being deployed in hospitals.

e-Sehat is a cloud based platform for real time and live two-way interaction between a patient and a health-care professional, including specialists, using audio-visual telecommunications and auto-synchronizing medical diagnostic data through specialised IoT enabled medical diagnostic devices. 

With the spike in COVID-19 infections across the country creating unprecedented workload on hospitals, the armed forces augmented their medical facilities and assisted the civilian administration by opening their medical facilities to treat civilians, establishing and running quarantine and treatment centres and transporting essential supplies across the country.

As part of augmenting the present capacity, the MoD recently extended the term of engagement of short service commissioned doctors serving in the Armed Forces till December 31, 2021. This implies that 238 doctors, who would have otherwise been released, will continue in service till the end of the year. In addition, additional doctors have also been hired by the Ex-servicemen Contributory Health Scheme.