All military hospitals in India will be connected to a central network for a telemedicine facility by 2008, a top armed forces official said Sunday.

The Indian Air Force (IAF) also has plans to link private hospitals with Military hospitals in a phased manner, Air Marshal P. Bandopadhyay, Director General of Medical Services (Air) told reporters at Coimbatore, about 400 km from here.

Four hospitals have been networked with the Bangalore Command Hospital and 28 more hospitals across India would be networked soon, she said.

Bandopadhyay, visiting an IAF hospital in the region, said authorities were exploring options on increasing the number of networked hospitals to enable military hospitals and empanelled civil hospitals to share the expertise of speciality hospitals.

This will help provide better medical care to retired armed forces personnel and the families of serving personnel, she said.