E-Paper
Centre’s eSanjeevani records 3 lakh out-patient consultations in 6 months
The ministry started a patient-to-doctor tele-consultation facility in India to manage patient rush during the coronavirus disease (Covid-19) outbreak when healthcare services were partially running.
The Union ministry of health and family welfare’s tele-consultation platform, eSanjeevani, has completed 3 lakh out patient department (OPD) consultations within the past six months since its launch.
The ministry started a patient-to-doctor tele-consultation facility in India to manage patient rush during the coronavirus disease (Covid-19) outbreak when healthcare services were partially running.
“This has helped in containing the spread of Covid-19 by ensuring physical distancing, and has simultaneously enabled provisions for non-Covid essential healthcare. The number of high tele-consultations is a testimony of its popularity among the citizens,” said the health ministry in a statement.
The total number of states and union territories using eSanjeevani has gone up to 26. Around 4,600 doctors have been trained in using the platform efficiently, and on an average at least 6,000 consultations per day are recorded in its national network.
With 1,29,801 digital interactions, Tamil Nadu has held the largest number of tele-consultations so far. The state had been a pioneer in the field, registering 32,035 OPD consultations by August 9, and 56,346 consultations by the 19th of the same month.
Tamil Nadu had also registered nearly one lakh consultations (97,204) by September 8. The platform had provided essential healthcare to the state, one of the worst affected by Covid-19, at a critical time when conventional medicine was perceived to be risky owing to the nature of the infectious disease.
Tami Nadu is followed by Uttar Pradesh (96,151 consultations), Kerala (32,921 consultations) and Uttarakhand (10,391 consultations). These four States account for almost 90% (2,69,264) of the total tele-consultations.
“The aspect that makes eSanjeevani telemedicine platform special is that the operations and management of the platform has been organised in a very methodological manner. A close and an efficient connection is maintained between the states and the implementing agency (C-DAC Mohali). This enables quick feedback from the users which helps the implementing team to make quick optimisations. Accordingly, eSanjeevani is not only consistently increasing with respect to its efficiency and productivity but it is also getting enriched with newer functionalities and features as required by the users in the states,” read the health ministry statement.
