The government's telemedicine facility eSanjeevani has hosted over 1.3 crore consultations, with Andhra Pradesh, Karnataka and Tamil Nadu logging the maximum use of its services, the Union Health Ministry said on Monday.
The digital platform has gradually shaped into a parallel stream for healthcare delivery, it said.
"Today, around 90,000 patients utilise the eSanjeevani platform on a daily basis," the ministry said, adding that its two sections -- doctor to doctor (eSanjeevaniAB-HWC) and patient to doctor (eSanjeevaniOPD) -- are providing remote consultations across the country.
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Launched in November 2019 by the Ministry of Health, eSanjeevaniAB-HWC is planned to be implemented at 1,55,000 health and wellness centres under the Ayushman Bharat scheme in the hub-and-spoke model by December 2022.
The eSanjeevaniAB-HWC is currently functional at over 27,000 health and wellness centres and these spokes are being served by around 3000 hubs which are located in district hospitals, medical colleges, etc.
The eSanjeevaniOPD, the second variant of this mammoth telemedicine initiative, was rolled out on April 13, 2020 during the first coronavirus-induced lockdown, when OPDs across the country were shutdown.
It enables access to outpatient services by the patients from the confines of their homes. Over 430 online OPDs are hosted on eSanjeevaniOPD and over 4,000 doctors practise telemedicine on the platform, the ministry said.
The Centre for Development of Advanced Computing's Mohali branch is providing end-to-end technical services such as development, implementation, operations and training of health personnel.
The team in Mohali is working on increasing the capacity of the platform.
The platform has so far hosted 1,34,11,325 consultations.
Ten states that are leading in terms of adoption of eSanjeevani are Andhra Pradesh (42,23,054 consultations), Karnataka (24,15,774), Tamil Nadu (15,99,283), Uttar Pradesh (13,71,799), Gujarat (4,85,735), Madhya Pradesh (4,47,878), Bihar (4,36,383), Maharashtra (4,03,376), West Bengal (3,69,441), and Uttarakhand (2,71,513), the ministry stated.