Tamil Nadu people most keen to skip hospital, meet doctors online

Chennai: As hospitals fight Covid, many people in Tamil Nadu are now getting their health status checked in less than six minutes at a click of a button. With 22,502 consultations, the state ranks number one in utilising the national free teleconsultation service esanjeevaniOPD, by the ministry of health and family welfare.

For patients, this service has come as an alternative to hospital visits at a time when there is a fear of Covid spread. For doctors and government authorities, it is the best way to avoid crowds in hospitals busy treating Covid patients. The service is active in 15 other states.

“We get not less than 1,200 calls a day. We have doctors in the state and district control rooms and we work along with 102 and 104 helplines,” said Dr T S Selvavinayagam, director of public health. “This service is for the common man when there is a difficulty in accessing their regular doctors. Minor ailments are handled and if need be, they are referred to a hospital. Though PHCs, medical colleges are working, this additional facility has become very useful during this lockdown,” he added.

The portal works similar to a hospital/ clinic visit, except that the wait time to meet a doctor is less online. People from any corner of the state could log on to the portal. At a time, nearly 25 to 50 doctors attend patients’ calls.

“I had skin allergy for the past three months and I was scared to go to a hospital. So, I used this service and a doctor from Nagapattinam attended. Within the next five minutes, she sent an e-prescription,” said Sundar R of Anna Nagar, Chennai.

More than cities, the portal seems to have benefitted more people in the districts and rural areas. Tiruppur district was the first in the state to reach 1,000 consultations and has 2,293 consultations to date.

“We aggressively took this up since its inception a couple of months ago. We wanted to avoid crowds in GH and other PHCs. So we have arranged computer systems in block hospitals so people from towns like Mulanur or Udumalpet need not come to the district hospital in Tiruppur,” said Dr K Vijayakarthikeyan, Tiruppur district collector. “We have suggested that prescriptions be forwarded to vendors and medicines be home-delivered to patients,” he added.