A pregnant woman with excessive pain met her gynecologist online. The doctor, from Motherhood, a mother and childcare specialist hospital, checked the screen to conclude the pain was not normal and asked her to call back if it did not subside in the next half an hour.
When it did not, she was rushed to the hospital. It was a case of ectopic pregnancy — where the fertilised egg implants and grows outside the walls of the uterus — resulting in heavy internal bleeding. The hospital says it could have been fatal if she was brought in late.
The lockdown and the subsequent hesitation among people to step out of home have seen doctor consultations on video soar. This is especially true for gynaecology and paediatric consultations as parents are wary of taking their little ones out during the pandemic and would-be mothers fear contracting the disease in hospitals.
E-consultations witness a rise
Healthcare portal Practo says while requests for in-person visits dropped 80% between March and May, demand for video consultations zoomed 500%. “During the period, about 5 crore Indians accessed healthcare online,” says Alexander Kuruvilla, chief medical strategy officer at Practo.
Motherhood, owned by PE firm TPG, says it had 10,000 consultations between the end of March and June, from negligible numbers at the start of the year. It did have the facility, but hardly any one availed it.
“Everybody was worried about stepping into hospitals as there was a certain degree of exposure, with all struggling to contain Covid. But we pivoted very quickly and created a tech platform for both mothers and children,” says Vishal Bali, executive chairman of Asia Healthcare Holdings (AHH), the investment platform of TPG.
Motherhood — which has 12 hospitals across the country — has 1,200-1,400 consultations daily, of which 275 are now through video. It had risen to 325 during the lockdown.
DocPulse, which provides a tech platform to hospitals for video consultations, says it has seen a glut of hospitals and clinics looking to come onboard. Before the pandemic, it had 10-15 hospitals availing the service but now it has gone up to about 50, says co-founder Prashant Hegde. “Even a few months ago, the number of daily consultations online were negligible. Now, it’s 400 a day. It was 500 during the lockdown,” he says. Among the hospitals it serves are MS Ramaiah Memorial Hospital, Motherhood, and Hyderabad-based Yashoda Hospitals.
Almost half the patients on Practo who consulted online were dealing with general ailments like common cold and backache. In Motherhood, 60% of the online visits are by women for problems like irregular menstrual cycle, fibroid or obstetrics. “A large number of our patients are young working couples and accessing doctors at their convenience helps them,” says Vijayrathna Venkatraman, CEO of Motherhood. The last four months have also seen a surge from non-metros.
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