PUNE The state is planning to extend the central ministry’s e-Sanjeevani app, the first-of-its-kind telemedicine service facility started by the country, to every district. Currently, the service is attended to by the medical health officer at the five health circles but with more experts added to the facility, each district would have a dedicated health officer. This would ensure that any person at the most remote location of any village would be able to get specialty medical services.
The e-Sanjeevani services for telemedicine were started by the union health ministry during the Covid pandemic to ensure health consultation reaches the person even in a remote village. At the time of launch, the ministry had stated that this was a doctor-to-doctor telemedicine service to provide general and specialised health services in rural areas.
It allows virtual connection between the beneficiary (along with the paramedic and a generalist) at the spoke which is health and wellness centre (HWC) and the doctor/specialist at the hub posted at a tertiary healthcare centre. This facilitates real-time virtual consultation from doctors and specialists at the hub with the beneficiary (through paramedics) at the spoke. The e-prescription generated at end of the session is used for obtaining medicines. Currently, SanjeevaniHWC is operational at around 50,000 health and wellness centres in the country.
Dr Sanjay Deshmukh, assistant director, state health services, Pune region, said, “This model has been very successful and before this only general physician or BAMS doctors could cater to the rural healthcare needs but now with this facility a person sitting in a remote village in Junnar could talk to a specialist dermatologist sitting in Pune city. This service also provides a doctor-to-doctor connection so that the expert doctor to coordinate with the paramedic or the doctor at the primary health centre through video conferencing or through the app and then provide the right consultation.”
{{/usCountry}}Dr Sanjay Deshmukh, assistant director, state health services, Pune region, said, “This model has been very successful and before this only general physician or BAMS doctors could cater to the rural healthcare needs but now with this facility a person sitting in a remote village in Junnar could talk to a specialist dermatologist sitting in Pune city. This service also provides a doctor-to-doctor connection so that the expert doctor to coordinate with the paramedic or the doctor at the primary health centre through video conferencing or through the app and then provide the right consultation.”
{{/usCountry}}As of now these services are provided at the regional level, the five circles of Maharashtra, Pune, Bhandara, Akola, Nanded and Nagpur. In Pune circle, which covers Pune, Solapur and Satara districts, the administration now plans to extend this service at district level.