Show up on e-sanjeevani portal or face action: DM

Ghaziabad: The district magistrate has asked all doctors to be active on the e-sanjeevani teleconsultation portal in Ghaziabad. A meeting with the health committee was initiated on Saturday after it was found that of 52 doctors registered on the portal, only 14 were active.
The CMO said doctors who do not show up on the portal would be issued show-cause notices.
“Doctors registered on the portal need to see patients free of cost,” said Dr Bhavtosh Shankdhar, CMO.
The district has 19 community health officers in Bhojpuri, 16 in Loni, 28 in Muradnagar, and 20 in Razapur who provide tele-consultations to patients.
The officials said that at least 70% of the patients get well after E- consultations and only 30% of patients require referal to higher centres like district hospitals.
Ghaziabad registers over 10,000 patients in a month on e-sanjeevani portal.
Doctors are available on the e-Sanjeevani tele-medical consultation platform of the UP government every day between 9 am to 5 pm. Starting as a temporary arrangement to keep up with the general OPD services during the initial Covid waves, e-Sanjeevani is now helping reduce the pressure on district hospitals and it also minimises the logistic costs for patients coming from remote areas.
“This system of tele-consultations is a test of medical expertise as one cannot physically examine the patient,” said a doctor who is a regular on the e-Sanjeevani portal.
On the app, patients can either choose to turn on their camera and microphone to directly speak to the doctors or they have the choice of writing down their problem along with the symptoms in the chat box. Based on the information provided, the doctors generate a digital prescription, which remains in the application’s database.
Experts said that this free service on e-Sanjeevani has ended the malpractice of buying over-the-counter medicines from pharmacy shops and the heavy consultation charges.