The Ministry of Health and Family Welfare recently announced that the eSanjeevani Telemedicine has crossed one million tele-consultations. The eSanjeevani is the first of its kind in delivering health services online.
Progress of eSanjeevani
It uses two streams in 28 states and Union Territories. The eSanjeevani AB-HWC enables doctor to doctor tele consultations. It is currently being used in more than 6,000 health and wellness centres. More than 20,000 doctors, paramedics and specialists have been trained to use eSanjeevani AB-HWC. The second stream eSanjeevani OPD provides remote health services to patients confining them to their homes.
The top two states that have registered the highest number of tele-consultations through eSanjeevani are Tamil Nadu and Andhra Pradesh.
About eSanjeevani
The doctor-to-doctor telemedicine system under the eSanjeevani is implemented under the Ayushman Bharat Health and Wellness Centre (AB-HWC) scheme. The AB-HWCs were launched to deliver expanded range of primary health care services to the communities.
Under eSanjeevani all the 1,50,000 HWCs are to be connected under a hub by December 2022. Under this model, secondary establishments will be set up under the hub. The centres connected to the hub directly will look after patients requiring intensive care. The secondary establishments will be routing patients who need more intensive care to the hub and will offer limited services.
The eSanjeevani OPD (Out Patient Department) services hosts more than 40 online services. It enables patient to doctor tele-consultations. The services under eSanjeevani OPD are offered at no cost. It is a two-way interaction. The specialties covered under the eSanjeevani OPD are psychiatry, gynaecology, Anti Retro viral Therapy (ART) for AIDS, Non-Communicable diseases, etc.
Way Forward
eSanjeevani can be a gam changer for people in rural areas. It is highly beneficial to people who do not have easy access to medical specialists as those located in cities. These Telemedicine services of Government of India are in line with Digital India.
