Ayushman Bharat-Health and Wellness Centres have crossed a landmark milestone in their mission of providing quality healthcare services near to the communities. A record 3.5 lakhs tele-consultations have been registered on two consecutive days- 26^th April and 27^th April 2022 through flagship telemedicine scheme of Union Health Ministry- “eSanjeevani”. This is the highest number of teleconsultations ever done at AB-HWCs on a single day, surpassing its earlier record of 3 lakhs teleconsultations per day. In addition, more than 76,000 patients have availed of the services provided by eSanjeevaniOPD telemedicine on 26th and 27th April, 2022.

This record achievement is a testimony of e-Sanjeevani platform’s robust technology.  With around 1 Lakh AB-HWCs already registered as spokes seeking consultation and more than 25,000 hubs providing teleconsultations, e-Sanjeevani portal has been facilitating access to healthcare services across the length and breadth of the country. The steady rise in tele-consultations to seek quality healthcare is a big step towards Antyodaya, where the far off and remote areas of the country are able to get quality and affordable healthcare. Teleconsultations have emerged as a boon to assure timely specialist services to the poorest across the remotest part of the country.

eSanjeevani, first-of-its-kind telemedicine initiative by any country, has two variants:

eSanjeevani Ayushman Bharat-Health and Wellness Centre (AB-HWC): A Doctor-to-Doctor telemedicine service under Ayushman Bharat-Health and Wellness Centres scheme of Government of India, to provide general and specialised health services in rural areas and isolated communities. Doctor-to-Doctor telemedicine service is based on a Hub-and-Spoke model. ‘eSanjeevani AB-HWC’ enables virtual connection between the beneficiary (along with paramedic and a generalist) at the spoke i.e. HWC and doctor/specialist at the hub (tertiary healthcare facility/hospital/medical college). This facilitates real-time virtual consultation from doctors & specialists at the hub with the beneficiary through paramedics at the spoke. The e-prescription generated at session end is used for obtaining medicines. ‘eSanjeevaniAB-HWC’ was implemented with a vision to provide quality health services to the maximum number of citizens by leveraging the potential of Information Technology bypassing hindrances of geography, accessibility, cost and distance.

Currently, eSanjeevaniHWC is operational at more than 80,000 Health & Wellness Centres. More than 2.70 lakh doctors were provided with general and specialised doctor-to-doctor telemedicine health services on each day (26th April and 27th April) in various parts of the country including far flung areas.

eSanjeevaniOPD: This is a patient-to-doctor telemedicine service to enable people to get outpatient services in the confines of their homes. ‘eSanjeevaniOPD’ has also been speedily and widely adopted by citizens in all parts of the country.  It is available as a mobile app for both Android and iOS based smartphones, and these apps have seen over 3 million downloads.

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