To ensure effective and immediate healthcare facilities for those working in its offshore platforms, the Oil And Natural Gas Corporation (ONGC) has opted for a real-time satellite hook-up with a premiere city-based hospital.
Already a month into its telemedicine pilot project with Bandra-based Lilavati Hospital, the hook-up with one platform (SLQ) is showing good results in terms of connectivity and transmission of data. If all goes well, all ONGC platforms will be linked.
ONGC’s telemedicine project aims to provide better medical care to the over-100 personnel on a platform and another 80 at the rig at any given time. ONGC has 24 such units in Bombay High, each of which has a resident doctor.
Personnel are posted offshore for 14 days at a stretch, explain ONGC officials, and are prone to all kinds of ailments — like cardio-vascular attacks, incidents of fainting, etc. If someone faints on site, he is administered first-aid and immediate treatment. But it takes anything between three to four hours to reach him to a city hospital.
The hook-up aims to cut down on treatment time and bring medical expertise to the offshore locations. “These are all remote locations. They are self-sufficient units but there are limitations. With the telemedicine project, we are installing gadgets on the platform that will enable real-time, live data transmission,” said a senior ONGC official.
Bombay High is India’s largest offshore oil field situated 161 km north of the Mumbai coast. It has a string of oil and gas rigs in the sea that pump oil to the coast, producing approximately 2,60,000 barrels everyday, which sums up to 14 per cent of India’s oil requirements and accounts for 38 per cent of all domestic production.
Helping Lilavati Hospital, which is already technologically equipped, hook up with offshore platforms via satellite is the Tamil Nadu-based Space Hospital. “It is our shared vision to have direct contact during emergency situations, connecting experts and personnel working on offshore platforms,” said its vice-president, Indumati Gopinathan.
Lilavati Hospital, already in the panel of ONGC hospitals, is naturally upbeat. “Medical attention is needed for the personnel there. A doctor there passes the information and consultants available around-the-clock here give the guidance,” said its medical director, Narendra Trivedi. “It’s a pilot project. We will see how it shapes up.”
The project is using a Russian V satellite with the help of soft/vital track monitors which enable real-time recording and transmission of information. Started on May 22, the first month of the three-month pilot project has gone off well. “There are some technical bottlenecks which have to be addressed. If all goes well, we will link all 24 platforms and oil rigs,” said another senior ONGC official.