Bhubaneswar: In less than 24 hours of Chief Minister Naveen Patnaik’s appeal to the doctors to support the Odisha Government’s initiative of launching a dedicated COVID-19 telemedicine helpline, as many as 300 doctors have joined the initiative to support the State’s fight against the deadly coronavirus.
This has been informed by the State Government’s Chief Spokesperson on COVID-19 Subroto Bagchi in a press briefing along with Works Secretary Dr. Krishan Kumar, who is also the Team Leader, 104 Health Helpline.
Elaborating details about the initiative, Krishan Kumar said that the dedicated telemedicine helpline 14410 will be launched tomorrow to provide medical assistance to the people related to COVID-19.
As the COVID cases are on rise, people are curious to know various things about the disease, like its symptoms, treatment, testing and preventive measures, he said.
The telemedicine helpline 14410 will be interlinked with the existing 104 Health Helpline, which gets around 12,000 to 14,000 calls daily, he said.
The 14410 will provide much better experience for the callers. The facility is equipped with an IVR which records details about the patient before reaching a doctor, he added.
The volunteers of Delhi-based Step One have developed the platform, to operate the telemedicine helpline. An app has been developed for the doctors to connect with callers.
On Monday, the Chief Minister appealed to all the doctors, across the State and India to come forward and register in the dedicated COVID-19 telemedicine helpline 14410 to provide medical assistance to people exhibiting coronavirus-like symptoms.