State starts online medical services for non-covid patients

In an attempt to provide relief to non-covid patients who are suffering due to the ongoing lockdown, the Maharashtra government started free online teleconsultation medical services from Tuesday.

A patient will have to register online after which he or she will be able to directly chat with an expert doctor through video conferencing or text chat on the portal — www.esanjeevaniopd.in.

It is a joint venture started with the help of the central government. State health minister Rajesh Tope said this is an online OPD service started considering the difficulties faced by the people in the absence of services of private practitioners.

A patient will have to register on the portal with the help of his mobile number.

He or she can upload any medical report or other documents available and get a token number.

The patient will be notified via to log in on the portal. He or she will be kept in waiting and will be asked to press ‘call now’ button once a doctor is available for them.

The patient can directly chat with the doctor through video conferencing or text message and will also get e-prescription after the discussion, the officials said.

“In the beginning, it was started on a pilot basis a few days ago but from now on the services is available across the state. A patient from any district of the state can get the benefit of the services,” Tope said.

However, the service will be available only in the first half of the day between 9.30am to 1.30pm. It will also not available on Sundays.

Tope said that the timings will be increased gradually based on the response from the people.