Telemedicine services get a boost as govt looks to strengthen online consultation
NEW DELHI: Ayushman Bharat Health and Wellness Centres across India have started offering telemedicine services, as the health ministry is focusing on strengthening online medical consultation services with specialists especially for patients in remote areas after the demand for online medical consultation seeing a rise during pandemic.
“These AB-HWCS are being revolutionized by connecting them with E-sanjeevani Teleconsultation services, which is providing free and affordable health care to all,” health minister Mansukh Mandaviya said on Sunday, while chairing a virtual review meeting with state health ministers and senior officials.
The government seeks to establish 150,000 such health centres, out of which 117,440 have been made operational by March. All these centres have started offering online consultations from Saturas
Although private hospitals had been offering online health care services for some time, the huge response to the central government’s e-sanjeevani initiative has led to the Centre’s focus on strengthening online consultations.
Apart from providing patients in rural and remote areas access to a specialist advice without travelling long distances, the move also led to decreased load in hospitals, especially tertiary care hospitals, which is a huge problem for super speciality hospitals in the country
many end up seeing in their out patient departments (OPDS) patients needing primary care, according to a government official.
“People in many states have been quick to recognise the benefits of e-sanjeevani and this has led to an encouraging trend of widespread rapid adoption of this digital modality of seeking health services,” Mandaviya said. “Patients consult with doctors and specialists using this innovative digital medium to seek health services.”
That the Covid-19 pandemic resulted in increased demand for online consultations has been established through surveys conducted by providers of tele- consultation services.
The average time spent by a patient with a doctor online during the Covid waves was 30 minutes, which is comparable to in-person visits, according to a recently-released report by Practo, a medical website that helps connect to medical specialists. The Practo report was based on transactions by 120 million users in the three waves of
Covid-19, and analysed the trends with regard to specialities, demographics and outlines their consequent impact on the health care ecosystem of the country.
As many as 57% used the platform for the first time after in-person consultations were restricted, according to the report, highlighting the level of comfort that patients attained with the idea of having an online consultation. Demand in public sector seems to be no different, with the health ministry announcing last month that its e-sanjeevani platform set a record of sorts by offering close to 200,000 consultations in a day, and around 50 million consultations since it was started.
Experts also believe the digital medium is the future.
“For most of us who have been championing digital adoption over the past two decades, this digital health revolution is not just evolutionary, it is revolutionary,” Rajendra Pratap Gupta, author of Digital Health – Truly Transformational, said.