The National Telemedicine Service eSanjeevani is reported to have completed over 1.2 crore (120 lakh) consultations.
The doctor to patient telemedicine system that has been deployed nationally by the Union ministry of health & family welfare under Ayushman Bharat scheme, is at present serving around 90,000 patients across the country daily.
The programme is also stated to be the largest telemedicine service in the country as people have turned to online consultations amidst the Covid-19 pandemic.
Among the top states getting maximum number of consultations through eSanjeevani across the country including Andhra Pradesh (37,04,258), Karnataka (22,57,994), and Tamil Nadu (15,62,156), according to reports.
eSanjeevani provides consultation via two modes- eSanjeevani AB-HWC (doctor to doctor telemedicine platform) that is based on hub and spoke model and eSanjeevaniOPD – (patient to doctor telemedicine platform) which provides outpatient services to the citizens without them having to leave their homes for expert advice.
The report further added that the eSanjeevani AB-HWC has so far completed around 67,00,000 consultations under the Ayushman Bharat Scheme. eSanjeevani OPD telemedicine variant provides healthcare advice to patients at the comfort of their homes. eSanjeevani OPD has served over 51,00,000 patients with 430 online OPDs that it hosts.
The services developed by the Centre for Development of Advanced Computing (C-DAC) under National Digital Health Mission (NDHM) is looking to reduce the digital divide and make consultations from medical experts more accessible, the telemedicine service rapidly gained importance during the COVID19 pandemic as it made it easier for people to consult doctors during the lockdown.
The Ministry of Health and Family Welfare said that it is planning to augment the services being offered further to enable 500,000 consultations per day.