The Chhattisgarh government hasdecided to launch an online platform to provide free medical consultancy to ailing people who are unable to visit doctors due to the lockdown, officials said on Sunday.Due to the restrictions imposed to contain the spread of coronavirus, several people are facing problems in having access to general health services."Also, there are less chances of normalisation of the situation in the near future. In this case, the online system will prove to be very effective for patients," a government official said.The state government will soon launch a website to facilitate free medical consultation for patients, he said.Chief Minister Bhupesh Baghel on Saturday instructed the state chief secretary to prepare an action plan within a week for online medical counselling of the ailing persons, so that the facility can be started soon, he said."The proposed website will work like a virtual hospital, through which ambulance facilities will also be made available to patients in case of need," the official said.The chief minister has asked officials to link both government and private hospitals to the website.Doctors from government hospitals will be available for consultation for a fixed period of time on the website, he said, adding that private doctors can also be part of the service if they agree to provide free consultation.The prescribed medicines will be delivered at the patients' homes, the official said.The patients will have to upload their medical history, like reports of CT scan, X-ray and others along with prescriptions related to the previous treatment, before interacting with doctors online.In urgent cases, patients could also be called to hospitals and ambulances will be arranged for them, he said.Samples of the patients required to be tested will also be collected from their homes by government and private labs registered on the website, and results will be uploaded online, he said.
