70 lakh consultations done so far on Centre's free telemedicine service eSanjeevani

The National Telemedicine Service named eSanjeevani where patients consult doctors and specialists daily for medical advice has crossed another milestone by completing 7 million consultations, said the Ministry of Health and Family Welfare on Saturday.

According to a press release, in another significant milestone, in June it served around 12.5 lakh patients, which is the highest since the services were launched last year in March.

Currently, the National Telemedicine Service is operational in 31 States and Union Territories.

eSanjeevaniAB-HWC - the doctor-to-doctor telemedicine platform has been implemented at around 21,000 Health and Wellness Centres as spokes and over 1900 hubs, which are located in District Hospitals and Medical Colleges in around 30 States. The doctor-to-doctor telemedicine platform has served over 32 lakh patients. The Ministry of Defence too has hosted a National OPD on eSanjeevaniOPD, where over 100 veteran doctors and specialists roped in by the Ministry of Defence, serve patients across the country.

In April last year, soon after the first national lockdown, the Union Ministry of Health and Family Welfare launched eSanjeevaniOPD. eSanjeevaniOPD is a patient-to-doctor telemedicine platform and provides health services to the public in the confines of their homes.

As many as 420 OnlineOPDs are hosted on eSanjeevani OPD and the platform hosts specialty and super-specialty OPDs, as well many of these specialty and super-specialty OPDs are being managed by premium hospitals like AIIMS in 5 States (Himachal Pradesh, Punjab, Telangana, West Bengal, Uttarakhand), King George Medical University in Lucknow. Over the past two weeks, over 50,000 patients have been utilising eSanjeevani services and around 2,000 doctors practice telemedicine on daily basis.The Union Ministry of Health and Family Welfare is consistently working towards increasing the reach of this state-of-the-art National Telemedicine Service.

Last month, the Union Ministry of Health and Family Welfare with the Ministry of Electronics and IT and C-DAC in Mohali had enabled the provision of accessing eSanjeevani services through 3.75 Common Service Centres across the country free of cost, for those on the other side of the digital health divide.

On July 1, 2021, the eSanjeevani was commended by the Prime Minister during the sixth anniversary of Digital India initiatives as well.

People in many states have been quick to recognise the benefits of eSanjeevani and this has led to an encouraging trend of widespread rapid adoption of this digital modality of seeking health services. It has led to massive improvement in access to specialised health services, particularly in rural areas. Further, this service has come in handy for the patients in urban areas as well, especially during the second wave of the ongoing pandemic that has burdened the healthcare services delivery system in the country.

In a short span of time, Government India's National Telemedicine Service has started aiding the Indian healthcare delivery system by plugging the digital health divide that exists in urban and rural India. It is also addressing the shortage of doctors and specialists at the ground level while reducing the burden on secondary and tertiary level hospitals.

In line with the National Digital Health Mission, eSanjeevani is also boosting the digital health ecosystem in the country.

Leading 10 states in terms of adoption of eSanjeevani are Andhra Pradesh (16,32,377), Tamil Nadu (12,66,667), Karnataka (12,19,029), Uttar Pradesh (10,33,644), Gujarat (3,03,426), Madhya Pradesh (2,82,012), Maharashtra (2,25,138), Bihar (2,23,197), Kerala (1,99,339) and Uttarakhand (1,66,827).

( With inputs from ANI )