Health Ministry's eSanjeevani telemedicine service completes 5 lakh consultations, hosts 216 online OPDs

The Union Health Ministry's eSanjeevani telemedicine initiative has recorded 5 lakh teleconsultations so far. According to the central government, the last one lakh consultations were completed in a record time of 17 days.

The Union Health Ministry's eSanjeev telemedicine initiative has recorded 5 lakh teleconsultations so far. According to the central government, the last one lakh consultations were completed in a record time of 17 days.

In the past few days, the number of teleconsultations per day on the platform has touched the 8,000 mark.

The top ten States which have registered the highest consultations through eSanjeev and eSanjeevOPD platforms are Tamil Nadu (1,69,977), Uttar Pradesh (1,34,992), Himachal Pradesh (39,326), Kerala (39,300), Andhra Pradesh (31,365), Uttarakhand (16,442), Madhya Pradesh (14,965), Gujarat (10,839), Karnataka (9,498) and Maharashtra (7,895).

At present, 26 states are using two variants of eSanjeev's telemedicine, namely - doctor to doctor (eSanjeevAB-HWC) and patient to doctor (eSanjeevOPD).

eSanjeev was launched under Ayushman Bharat - Health Wellness Centre (AB-HWC) by the health ministry in November 2019 and it is to be implemented at 1,55,000 Health and Wellness Centres in conjunction with identified medical college hospitals functioning under the union government.

eSanjeevAB-HWC is functional at around 4,000 Health and Wellness Centres.

The second variant of this ambitious initiative, eSanjeevOPD which has the potential of being the world's largest telemedicine platform, was rolled out on April 13, 2020, during the first lockdown when the OPDs across the country were closed, said the government.

"eSanjeevOPD enables access to OPD services by the patients in the confines of their homes. eSanjeevOPD has been accepted evenly by both the patients and the doctors. Over 100 telemedicine practitioners have completed more than 1,000 teleconsultations and a few of them have logged over 10,000 consultations. On the other hand, over 20 per cent of patients have used eSanjeev to consult with doctors for more than once," the statement said.

( With inputs from ANI )