The Union Health Ministry’s ‘eSanjeevani’ digital platform has provided two lakh tele-consultations to the patients seeking medical guidance amid the Covid-19 pandemic.

“In a short span of time since November 2019, tele-consultation by ‘eSanjeevani’ has been implemented by 23 states (which covers 75 per cent of the population) and other states are in the process of rolling it out.

 “In what can be seen as a big push for the ‘Digital India’ initiative of the prime minister, the eSanjeevani platform has proved its usefulness and easy access for the caregivers and the medical community, and those seeking healthcare services in the time of COVID-19,” the ministry said in a statement here.

The eSanjeevani platform has enabled two types of telemedicine services — doctor-to-doctor (eSanjeevani) and patient-to-doctor (eSanjeevani OPD) tele-consultations. The former is being implemented under the Ayushman Bharat Health and Wellness Centre (AB-HWC). It aims to implement tele-consultation in all the 1.5 lakh Health and Wellness Centres in conjunction with identified medical college hospitals in a ‘Hub and Spoke’ model, as per the statement.

“States have identified and set up dedicated ‘Hubs’ in medical colleges and district hospitals to provide tele-consultation services to ‘Spokes’, i.e sub-health centres (SHCs), primary health centres (PHCs) and Health and Wellness Centres,” it said.

The Ministry rolled out the second tele-consultation service ‘eSanjeevaniOPD’ enabling patient-to-doctor telemedicine owing to the COVID-19 pandemic in April this year.