Bhubaneswar, Aug. 12: An online directory of doctors and health centres — www.orissahealth.org — will soon be made available by the National Rural Health Mission (NHRM).

By floating the site, the health mission officials want to relieve people of the uphill task of flipping through every page of the telephone directory or yellow pages to find the right doctor at the right time. Visitors to Bhubaneswar, too, would find the online directory useful during emergencies.

The site would include information of specialists, medical investigation facilities, and availability of ambulances in a straightforward manner. The web page would contain photographs of health centres and their distances from major landmarks of the city.

A list of 573 major and minor health institutions existing in Bhubaneswar and their categorisation into allopathic, homeopathy or ayurvedic clinics would also be made available, said Mithun Karmakar, the geographic information system (GIS) consultant for the health mission.

The format “Where my doctor is” (WMDI) is being touted as the first-of-its-kind in the country and would start within a week’s time.

“With the site one can access to comprehensive information about health services available in a particular city,” said NRHM director Sushil Kumar Lohani.

The WMDI information, it has been decided, would be converted into brochures. “Health workers, especially Asha workers, will find it useful. The Asha workers’ services will soon be extended to urban centres,” Lohani said.

The NRHM initially conducted a detailed survey of health services available in eight Class-I urban centres with a population above 1 lakh.

The idea was to use the information to create an assured primary health service for the urban poor, but later the administrators decided to post it on a public domain for people to gain maximum advantage out of it.

A urban health GIS has been developed by the NRHM for Bhubaneswar, Cuttack, Berhampur, Rourkela, Puri, Sambalpur, Balasore and Baripada using GPS and remote sensing.

“WMDI for other selected cities would be uploaded later,” Karmakar said.