PMCH unable to use internet data under Union govt’s National Knowledge Network scheme
Data usage at Patna Medical College Hospital is said to be low, as compared to the All India Institute of Medical Sciences -Patna, Indira Gandhi Institute of Medical Sciences, National Institute of Technology-Patna and the Lalit Narayan Mishra Institute of Economic Development and Social Change, which are consuming 1 Gbps
At a time when thrust is on data, the Patna Medical College Hospital (PMCH) — one of the oldest and busiest health hubs in India, with a bed count of around 2,000 — has been struggling for the past four years to utilise its quota of internet data, available free of cost, under the Centre’s National Knowledge Network (NKN) programme.
Against the available 1 gigabyte per second (1,073,741,274 bytes) data, the medical college has not been able to utilise even the threshold 100 megabyte per second (104,857,600 bytes) since the NKN project was completed at the PMCH four years back.
“An institute must first utilise 80-85% of 100 Mbps data to qualify for 1 Gbps data under the NKN project. Data usage at PMCH is low, as compared to the All India Institute of Medical Sciences (AIIMS)-Patna, Indira Gandhi Institute of Medical Sciences, National Institute of Technology and the Lalit Narayan Mishra Institute of Economic Development and Social Change, which are consuming 1 Gbps,” said Neeraj Sinha, technical director and state coordinator of the NKN project of the National Informatics Centre (NIC) — the government agency executing the project here.
“The reason for our low data utilisation is because only 15% of our campus — the non-clinical departments, principal’s office and the central library — is covered with internet connectivity under NKN project. We have now requested the Beltron (a state government IT agency) to extend data connectivity to the medical college hospital campus and also make it wifi under the chief minister’s seven resolves programme,” said PMCH acting principal Dr VK Gupta.
Even for the 15% PMCH campus, data connectivity was restored after four months on February 22. “There was some snag in our UPS system and its battery had also drained out last October. It became functional on Thursday,” added Dr Gupta.
“Our mandate was to ensure data connectivity reaches the PMCH. It is now for the institute to expand it within its campus,” said an NIC officer.
A senior Beltron functionary said the PMCH and Darbhanga Medical College Hospital (DMCH) were initially opposed to having data connectivity, even as it was offered to them free of cost under the Central scheme.
“The PMCH has a data user base of 400-500 people, which is not commensurate with the investment required to make the campus WiFi. The portion, which the earlier principal had signed off, was made WiFi some nine months back. The PMCH now wants to extend it to the entire campus. We have decided to execute the project and place orders with L&T, the executing agency. The survey has been completed. The L&T is at present facing issues with its suppliers, but we expect it to complete the project by March 31,” said Rahul Singh, managing director, Beltron.