BSS :
Sixty-two-year old Farida Hauqe’s body temperature reached 103°F. Her high fever was accompanied by mild cough and headache. Her only daughter Ruma was rightly concerned for her widow mother.
College student Ruma could understand that her mother, like many others, had Covid-19 symptoms. She became seriously anxious and wanted to get rid of it.
Like other parts of the world, Bangladesh enforced countrywide shutdown (lockdown) to tackle coronavirus outbreak. Hospitals were experiencing huge crowd and there was scarcity of treatment facilities. Doctors were almost unavailable. Besides, going to a hospital for treatment posed further risks of contagion.
“It was just 10:23 pm on July 26, 2021. I called the number ‘333’… I was a little bit surprised as my call was successful at the first attempt. The call centre agent forwarded my call to a registered physician of the ‘Doctors’ Pool BD’. The doctor carefully listened to me as I described my mother’s symptoms,” Ruma, an inhabitant of Moukaron village in Patuakhali district, told BSS recently.
In a tone of satisfaction, she said, hearing all, the doctor finally came to a conclusion that my mother was not likely infected with Covid-19. He prescribed her medicines for the fever and advised maintaining 14-day isolation.
“The doctor also advised to dial 333 again if my mother faced further complications. Within a few minutes, he messaged me a prescription,” Ruma said, adding that her mother’s condition improved within a week.
“The telemedicine service is very helpful,” she said and recommended others to avail themselves of this opportunity in case of the need of medical consultation anywhere.
Meanwhile, Md Safiul Islam, a second year student of Dhaka University Public Administration (DUPA) Department, had to face almost the same situation concerning his father, a 70-year-old diabetic patient who also suffers from hypertension.
“I felt really helpless seeing my father’s illness with fever and joint pain in hands and legs. I talked to my friend Robin. He advised me to call 333 to get telemedicine service as it was very difficult to get treatment physically at any hospital,” Saiful told BSS.
Getting connected with a female doctor, he described her father’s health condition. The doctor listened to her father’s problems and asked him to write down names of some medicines for him (father).
“I did everything properly as per the doctor’s advice and by the grace of Allah, my father improved a lot in eight days,” he mentioned.
The ‘333’ is a public service hotline known as “The National Helpline”, run by a2i programme of the Bangladesh government’s ICTD ministry aimed at disseminating information on procedures of receiving public services and addressing social problems.
It was created to raise public awareness about Covid-19 and provide medical advice to common people at home. Only the enlisted doctors here give medical advice 24 hours a day.
Talking to BSS, Dr Moniruzzaman Khan, a medical officer and assistant surgeon of Bakerganj Upazila Health Complex in Barishal district, said, “I provided telemedicine service to many patients, mostly the corona patients.”
“As a physician and health cadre officer, I use to provide telemedicine services to the people by rendering medical and counselling services directly and via mobile phones,” the two-time corona infected physician added.
Dr Palash Kumar Roy, one of the frontline fighters, is now working as the health officer in the Rangpur City Corporation. He told BSS that he gave medical advice to over 11,600 people so far.
“An Italian citizen, who works in a project here, was infected with Covid-19. He called over the 333 hotline. I tried my level best to treat him,” said the doctor.
“He called again after 14 days. Fortunately, I received the phone call. Getting his identity, I told him that I had given him the previous treatment. The patient informed that he recovered a lot.” Polash mentioned.
About telemedicine services, a2i’s national consultant Didar-E-Kibria said when Bangladesh, like the rest of the world, was hit by the coronavirus pandemic, there was a nationwide lockdown from April last year. At that time, none was ready to deal with this new situation.
Since then, he said, some 4500 doctors, registered with BMDC, are giving health advice at their leisure time over phone. The physicians had to complete the Directorate General of Health Services’ (DGHS) course on Covid-19 through the national e-learning platform developed by a2i, MuktoPaath and the telemedicine service.
Total 447,077 people have so far been provided services and advice through it till date.
“There has been a huge response to this. Lots of calls come. Everyone was struggling to cope with the load . . . At present, the 333 infrastructures were designed in such a way that 1,000 calls can be received per second,” the a2i representative said.
Using it, about 499,320 people received corona information. Home quarantine information has taken by 638,070 people. Doctors have given prescriptions to 33,251 people through SMS, Didar informed.
This service has created immense opportunity to get medical advice by all, rich and poor, living particularly in rural areas. Medical advice now may be instantly availed no matter whether it is late night or far away from hospital.
“If health service through mobile phone gets wide publicity, the pressure o the hospitals will lessen. Then it will be possible to provide better treatment to the patients coming to hospitals. Thus, patients’ satisfaction will be increased,” the a2i official hoped.
