Chandigarh: eSanjeevani boon for rural health centres

Naina Mishra

Chandigarh, February 11

The eSanjeevani application has benefitted a lot to doctors at Health and Wellness Centres in rural areas here, facilitating 68,074 doctor-to-doctor consultations – surpassing patient-to-doctor interactions at 18,788.

This eSanjeevani application works on a hub-and-spoke model. Through this model, doctors, including specialists, can provide services to Health and Wellness Centres in rural areas. Further, people living on the periphery and rural areas can also avail of services through the OPD module of eSanjeevani.

The Government Multi-Speciality Hospital (GMSH), Sector 16, is running the teleconsultation service through eSanjeevani wherein patients fill in the details and receive a token number through which doctors attend the patients through video calling.

ESanjeevani-OPD

• Patient registration on esanjeevaniopd.in
• Video consultation with doctor
• Instant messaging (text-based) e-prescription
• SMS notifications by doctors employed at the hospitals.

Besides, the teleconsultation facility at the GMSH-16 is attached to the Health and Wellness Centres of the city wherein the doctors attending the patients can seek consultation from specialists at the GMSH-16. The majority of doctor-to-doctor teleconsultations take place between doctors posted at these centres and specialists of the GMSH-16. The e-Sanjeevani OPD at the GMSH, Sector 16, and all Health and Wellness Centres in Chandigarh is aimed at helping the general public, especially elderly persons and patients with comorbidities. Patients have the ease of getting an appointment from doctors and getting specialist opinion as well.

However, this poses a strain on specialist doctors at the GMSH-16 who juggle both physical OPD attendance and virtual consultations. To overcome this, the GMSH has been planning to hire specialists who would specifically deal with the patients who are lining through the mobile app. Plans are afoot to set up an exclusive round-the-clock telemedicine hub where only dedicated medical specialists will attend the patients through the mobile app or tele-calling.

The PGI already has a tele-consultation hub wherein dedicated superspecialist are providing consultation to doctors of Haryana, Jammu and Kashmir, Himachal Pradesh and Chandigarh.

Three models in UT

Patients to doctors

At 29 Health and Wellness Centres and patients can register on eSanjeevani and consult the dispensary medical officer

Patients to specialists

A patient can enrol on e-sanjeevaniopd.in and consult a specialist at the GMSH-16 and the GMCH-32 in various specialities

Specialists to super-specialists

GMSH-16 doctors can have super-speciality consultations available at the PGI