The Central Government has shown its efforts in giving a digital push in the health sector by initiating two types of telemedicine services viz. Doctor-to-Doctor (eSanjeevani) and Patient-to-Doctor (eSanjeevani OPD) Tele-consultations in 2019. Since then the tele-consultation by ‘eSanjeevani’ has been implemented by 23 states (which covers 75% of the population) and other states are in the process of rolling it out.
- The Doctor-to-Doctor (eSanjeevani) is being implemented under the Ayushman Bharat Health and Wellness Centre (AB-HWCs) programme. It is planned to implement tele-consultation in all the 1.5 lakh Health and Wellness Centres in a ‘Hub and Spoke’ model, by December 2022.
- This information was given by the Minister of State (MoS) for Skill Development and Entrepreneurship Raj Kumar Singh in a written reply in the Lok Sabha.
Key Points:
-States have identified and set up dedicated ‘Hubs’ in Medical Colleges and District hospitals to provide tele-consultation services.
-As on September 14, 12,000 users comprising Community Health Officers and Doctors have been -trained to make use of this national e-platform.
-Presently, telemedicine is being provided through more than 3,000 HWCs in 10 States.
-National telemedicine service has completed more than 1,50,000 tele-consultations enabling patient to doctor consultations from the confines of their home, as well as doctor to doctor consultations.
-On August 20, 2020, milestone of 2 lakh tele-consultations had been achieved.
Top five States operating eSanjeevani
- Tamil Nadu (56,346 consultations), Uttar Pradesh (33,325), Andhra Pradesh (29,400), Himachal Pradesh (26,535) and Kerala (21,433).
Andhra Pradesh leads with most Health and Wellness Centres-medical college interactions/consultations while Tamil Nadu leads in the out-patient department [OPD] services with consultations.
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