Online help for OPD patients

Aditi Tandon

Tribune News Service

New Delhi, March 27

People registered with outpatient departments of government hospitals will soon start getting SMS alerts to be online to consult their doctors.

AIIMS, New Delhi, and PGI, Chandigarh, have already rolled out telemedicine portals for follow-up with patients in neurology and endocrinology units after the government issued National Telemedicine Practice Guidelines on Thursday to let doctors see patients online or on phone from home during the lockdown period.

The guidelines aim to enable continuity of care for lakhs who won’t be able to physically seek services due to the closure of OPDs across India to spare resources for Covid-19 management.

“Telemedicine guidelines allow doctors to see patients from home. Given the cell phone penetration India has, telemedicine tools can prove useful in dispensing medical services during the lockdown,” Health Ministry Joint Secretary Lav Agarwal said, indicating a long battle ahead with Covid.

The country saw 75 new cases in 24 hours — up from 649 cases at 4 pm Thursday to 724 at 4 pm Friday. There have been four deaths in these last 24 hours taking the toll to 17.

The rise in the rate of daily new cases between yesterday and today is 11.5 per cent — a stable or low trend in early stages of the disease.

The corresponding rates were 16.70 per cent between March 24 and 25; 11.13 per cent between March 23 and 24, 17.93 per cent between March 22 and 23, 25.71 per cent between March 21 and 22 and 41.12 per cent between March 20 and 21.

On the telemedicine front, all government hospitals are in the process of developing portals first for patients with relatively predictable course of disease and then for the more severe patients who need care.

The AIIMS neurology department conducted first telemedicine session on Thursday with patients of stroke. Other departments like those of surgery, infectious diseases, psychiatry and geriatric medicine will soon set up telemedicine clinics.

The Health Ministry said private hospitals should also use new guidelines.

The guidelines say: “Pandemics pose unique challenges to providing healthcare. Though telemedicine will not solve them all, it is well suited to evaluate and manage patients without exposing the staff to infections during outbreaks. This way both patients and doctors are protected.”

These guidelines are India’s first attempt to legalise the practice of telemedicine by doctors.

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