February 11, 2025
Rajya Sabha MP Saket Gokhale’s supplementary question on improving the doctor-patient ratio on the eSanjeevani platform, and making doctors available exclusively for telecalls
Sir, the basic issue today with the eSanjeevani platform is the very dismal doctor-patient ratio. This results in calls queuing up. What happens in a lot of rural areas where they use eSanjivni platform is the network tends to be slow, connectivity tends to be slow. This result in a lot of people having the average wait time, according to one study in the Lancet, is about 20 to 25 minutes. The other problem, Sir, is a lot of doctors already have patients in their physical presence in the OPD. And, these are the same doctors who are consulting on the eSanjeevani platform. I am carrying to it, Sir. They are the same doctors who are to be consulted on eSanjeevani platform. They are already overwhelmed with the OPDs. So, the point is that it is a very good platform. What is the Ministry going to do to improve the patient-doctor ratio and whether you are going to get doctors who are specifically available only for tele-consultations on the platform?
