Health Ministry's national telemedicine service eSanjeevani crosses 60 lakh consultations: Government

NEW DELHI: Union Health Ministry's national telemedicine service -- eSanjeevani -- crossed another milestone by completing six million (60 lakh) consultations through more than 375 online OPDs, an official statement said on Thursday.

More than 40,000 patients consulted over 1,600 doctors on a daily basis using this innovative digital medium to seek health services, the health ministry statement said. Currently, the national telemedicine service is operational in 31 states and union territories.

The health ministry had conceptualised eSanjeevani -- a doctor-to-doctor telemedicine platform -- in November 2019 for implementation at 1,55,000 health and wellness centres under central government's Ayushman Bharat scheme in a hub and spoke model.

As OPDs across the country were closed due to the COVID-19 pandemic last year, the Union Health Ministry ensured a rapid development and rollout of this initiative in collaboration with the Centre for Development of Advanced Computing (Mohali).

The eSanjeevani AB-HWC has been implemented at around 20,000 health and wellness centres as spokes and over 1,800 as hubs in around 30 states, the statement said.

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, it said.

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, the statement said.

It has led to massive improvement in access to specialised health services, particularly in rural areas, it added.

Further, the statement said, this service has come in handy for the patients in urban areas as well, especially during the second wave of the COVID-19 pandemic that has burdened the healthcare services delivery system in the country.

Leading 10 states in terms of adoption (number of consultations) of eSanjeevani are Andhra Pradesh (12,19,689), Tamil Nadu (11,61,987), Karnataka (10,56,447), Uttar Pradesh (9,52,926), Gujarat (2,67,482), Madhya Pradesh (2,64,364), Bihar (1,92,537), Maharashtra (1,77,629), Kerala (1,73,734) and Uttarakhand (1,34,214), it said.