(Image source from: blog.cureatr.com)

With the impacts of the lockdown imposed in India, it is not just economy that has witnessed a hit. People suffering from chronic medical conditions have had to face consistent issues with their regular check-ups and their medications.

In one such example, a 62-year old resident of Jhabua, Rasheed Begum started feeling unwell. She had her heart surgery a few months back and was not in a state to travel 46 kms to get herself checked in the hospital.

Add the risks of Covid-19 for the aged and vulnerable people and she was even more worried about the outcome of the situation.

While many people would give up and accept the situation as it is, she didn’t want to do so. Instead, she went to the village-level common services centre run by the telecommunication department of the Indian government. The center is equipped with high speed internet, which helped her connect with her doctor to get inputs on the state of her condition.

She was also prescribed with the necessary medication using the telemedicine facility.

This is one of the many situations that witnessed the growth of the online medical consultation in India amidst the ongoing lockdown.

The Indians are reaching out to their doctors over some of the mildest symptoms with the aid of tele consultation that are being offered by the hospitals.

Telemedicine is the best change that the Indian hospitals have introduced to make healthcare facilities a lot more accessible amidst the covid-19 impacts.

As per the statistics mentioned by Centre for Disease Dynamics, Economics and Policy (CDDEP), the reports suggest that India has a shortage of 6 million doctors along with 2 million nurses.

The Indian health ministry introduced the facility of Telemedicine on March 26, 2020, allowing the doctors to write prescriptions based on telephone conversations that help reduce the imposed risks on the healthcare professionals. It also makes the process of regular checkups a lot more accessible and easy for the families, caregivers and the social sector individuals.

"We have seen spike of over 10 times and more than 30,000 citizens across the country have benefitted during the month of April, 2020, lockdown period", said Dinesh Tyagi, CEO of CSC e-Governance Services company.

Tyagi further mentioned that before lockdown, they witnessed around 200-300 consultancies across various specialities, resulting in over 6000 monthly calls.

Because of the fact that India’s health expenditure is just 1.28% of its GDP, there is a high shortage of skilled doctors and nurses in the sector. The same is especially prominent in some of the rural areas and the underdeveloped states.

For a population of 1.36 billion, India just has 1.1 million allopathic doctors, which makes the doctor-population ratio at 1:1457, which is a lot lesser than what WHO recommends at 1:1000.

The process of telemedicine can come in handy in helping the individuals needing immediate medical attention outside the city.

With this new process ingraining its way into the society, it is likely going to reform the overall medical infrastructure and address the urban-rural divide that is often witnessed around.

Rajan S Mathews, Director- General of the Cellular Operators Association of India (COAI) further stated saying, "The telecom operators ensured their networks were up and running to meet the unprecedented surge in demand during lockdown times to provide this kind of services in urban and rural India.”

Telemedicine has already decongest a lot of the leading hospitals in India, moving their out patient services online to help contain the spread of the virus.

This change in sudden behavior of the people including switching to telemedicine is likely going to stay for quite some time now.

By Somapika Dutta