Government of India’s telemedicine service – eSanjeevani – has completed 30 lakh consultations
Bengaluru: In another feather to take medicine to the homes of the less fortunate, the government of India’s telemedicine service – eSanjeevani – has completed 30 lakh consultations.
It is pertinent to note that as many as 35000 people across the country are making use of this service. It is in place in as many as 31 states.
The service is set up by the ministry of health and family welfare. Swarajya notes that it comprises two variants. The first is doctor to doctor (eSanjeevani AB-HWC) telemedicine platform that is based on hub and spoke models. The second one is a patient to doctor telemedicine platform (eSanjeevani OPD) which provides outpatient services to the citizens in the confines of their homes.
The website quoted a statement from the ministry that said the eSanjeevani AB-HWC is being implemented at health and wellness centres under Ayushman Bharat Scheme, and by December 2022 it will be made operational at 1,55,000 health and wellness Centres across India.
It was rolled out in November 2019 and Andhra Pradesh was the first State to roll out eSanjeevani AB-HWC services. Since its roll out, eSanjeevani AB-HWC has completed around 9 lakh consultations.
eSanjeevani OPD provides digital health services to the citizens through more than 250 online OPDs. Over 220 of these online OPDs are specialist OPDs and the rest are general OPDs. eSanjeevani OPD was rolled out on 13 April 2020 during the first lockdown in the country when all the OPDs were closed. So far, over 21 lakh patients were served through eSanjeevani OPD.
Quick and widespread adoption of eSanjeevani reflects that a significant proportion of outpatient visits can be clinically managed remotely. Patients with no urgent medical conditions are using eSanjeevani without having to expose themselves to the risk of being infected and without compromising quality of care.
Nationally, over 31,000 doctors and paramedics have been trained and on boarded eSanjeevani, of these around 14,000 doctors practice telemedicine on eSanjeevani OPD and over 17,000 doctors and Community Health Officers use eSanjeevani AB-HWC.
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