State gives telemedicine consultation to over 4L people, addresses 14L queries

Kolkata: At a time when the Covid infection curve in Bengal is yet to go down, the state Health department has managed to provide health services to a large number of people through phone calls thereby reducing the admission rate at the hospitals.

Telemedicine consultation service extended by the health department has become crucial for those living in the far off places. Many people who have not been affected with Covid were given on-call health consultation by the doctors deployed by the health department to attend the phone calls. People have been greatly benefited by the various online services introduced by the state government after the Covid pandemic broke out.

According to the health department, the telemedicine consultations have been given to over 4 lakh people till Wednesday. According to sources in the health department, around 3,000-4,000 people call at the direct telemedicine number — 033-2357 6001 on a daily basis on an average.

The Health department has so far addressed nearly 14 lakh queries related to Covid and also non-Covid issues. The department has already floated a dedicated Covid helpline number —1800313444222.

The health department has conducted 1,11,622 tele-psychological counselling till October 26.

Tele-psychological counselling services were started on August 1 this year. On a daily basis the department receives over 1,000 calls from the people across the state. Since the appearance of the Covid in the state, many people have started suffering from depression. As a result, many hospitals are now extending psychological treatment for the Covid patients. Doctors are conducting psychological counseling in the government run Covid hospitals as well. There has been a dedicated number for ambulance services. People have to call at 033-4090 2929 for availing ambulance services. There were allegations from certain quarters that private ambulances were charging the patients exorbitantly.

The state government has now fixed the rate of private ambulances and the West Bengal Clinical Establishment and Regulatory Commission (WBCERC) has issued guidelines in this regard.