Health Ministry's eSanjeevani OPD Platform Records 3 Lakh Tele-Consultations Within Six Months Of Launch

The Health Ministry's tele-consulation platform eSanjeevani has completed 3 lakh Out Patient Department (OPD) consultations within a period of six months since its launch.

The eSanjeevani OPD service was started by the ministry in April this year enabling patient-to-doctor telemedicine 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 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," the Health Ministry said in a statement on Thursday (24 September).

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 statement said. 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 2,69,264 tele-consultations (89.75% of total 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 connect 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," the ministry said.

"Accordingly, eSanjeevani is not only consistently increasing with respect to its efficiency / productivity but it is also getting enriched with newer functionalities and features as required by the users in the states," it added.4