Jahangeer Ganaie
Srinagar, Dec 08: Ehsaas International Trust under an initiative ‘Dial a Doctor’ has provided consultations to over 5,000 patients in the last two to three months and the trust is aiming to continue this initiative even after the pandemic.
General Secretary Ehsaas International trust Hakim Mohammed Ilyas told while speaking to news agency—Kashmir News Observer (KNO), said that due to adverse impact of covid-19 on health infrastructure of J&K, with the help of around 350 Kashmiri doctors living abroad, the trust decided to provide free consultations to non-covid patients over phone from their homes only.
He said that this was conceptualized keeping in view that hospitals are high risk places for contraction of Covid-19 disease and many ailments can be very easily managed by telephonic consultations.
“A control room with a Toll Free No 1800 889 2729 has been set up which is managed by a team of doctors and paramedics and on time consultations are being provided to these patients by these 350 doctors,” he said, adding that so far over 5,000 patients have got benefited through this initiative.
He said that when OPDs were closed, they were receiving around 500 calls from every corner of India on a daily basis and after OPDs have started their routine work, accordingly the call load reduced and currently “we are receiving around 80 to 100 calls on a daily basis.”
“Our aim behind this initiative is just to bring a sigh of relief to those patients who don’t want to visit hospitals due to the risk of contracting covid-19,” he said, adding that, “we aim to continue this service post-pandemic as well considering the positive response from doctors as well as patients.”
He said that they are thankful to all those doctors who are offering their services free besides providing their expertise by managing the patients through telemedicine consultations and we salute them for giving their valuable time and helping in easing the difficulties of people—(KNO)
