In light of the current healthcare emergency facing India, Avaya, a global firm in solutions to enhance and simplify communications and collaboration, has joined hands with a group of non-profit organisations and doctors to rapidly improve Covid-19 patient’s access to free healthcare while easing the stress on hospitals and clinics struggling with patient care.
Available nationwide and built under the direction of Minister Shree Ravi Shankar Prasad, Ministry of Electronics and Information Technology (MeitY), MedicSetu gives Covid-19 patients under home quarantine the ability to participate in free video consultations with qualified doctors using a virtual platform. This greatly increases citizen’s access to medical advice while easing the burden on stretched resources at healthcare institutions.
The platform also enables doctors associated with various self-help groups and NGOs, including Rotary International and Arogya Foundation of India, to contribute their services or free Covid-19 consultations to the country.
“The number of Covid-19 cases in India has increased drastically over the past weeks, putting a significant strain on our current healthcare infrastructure. But we are fortunate and humbled that so many NGOs and medical groups have come forward to help,” said Kunaal Prasad, COO, NLP Mission, MeitY.
“The creation of MedicSetu coordinates these efforts by giving patients free access to groups of doctors from anywhere without placing additional stress on the healthcare system. This is a purely non-commercial project, driven by the spirit of cooperation and contribution of doctors, NGOs, federations, volunteers and others, and we thank them for their proactive support to help us get the situation under control,” added Prasad.
With a solution to the healthcare emergency needed urgently, the platform was created within seven days. During a test phase, 163 registered doctors provided consultation to over 876 patients during that week. And with MedicSetu having proven its ability to alleviate the surging demand on hospital resources, the initiative has now been expanded nationwide with over 1,000 doctors on-board.
“Right now, the focus is totally on the Covid-19 patients who are hospitalised, but the ones who are home quarantined need equal attention. It is the time where organisations like us need to step up to address this gap and find the best solution to avail doctors to these home quarantined patients, especially for those who cannot take any financial pressure for medical consultation,” said Rtn. Kamal Sanghvi, Director, Rotary International.
“Since the beginning of the pandemic, our Avaya team has gone above and beyond to safeguard the health and safety of others, while supporting organisations and customers globally in their ability to respond. And once again we have been humbled by the incredible work that our team put into this initiative, and by their drive to use our technology for good in the face of significant societal challenges,” said Vishal Agrawal, Managing Director, India and SAARC, Avaya.
