LNH launches free ‘tele-health service’ to create awareness of coronavirus

karachi: The Liaquat National Hospital (LNH) administration has said that they have introduced a free of charge “telehealth free service” for people who wish to get information about coronavirus or talk to a specialist, consultant doctor regarding COVID-19.

Talking to a section of media, Anjum Rizvi, spokesperson for the hospital said: “We were receiving a lot of queries about this virus, and what we have understood from those queries is that most of the people are confused about the actual details of this virus, its cure or precautions. One of the reasons being a lot is written and shown on social media, which, in most cases is neither authentic nor credible.”

The LNH official maintained that because of the lockdown and the government’s appeals, people were confined to their homes, and the use of social media had increased manifolds in comparison to normal usage; therefore, people were finding it difficult to approach an authentic source or to visit the specialist doctors in hospitals or clinics.

“Keeping all this considerations, Liaquat National Hospital has started the tele-health program where people can talk to the infectious diseases specialists and get more information or advises about COVID-19,” Rizvi added.

This service is free of charge, available from 10am to 4pm from Monday to Saturday, and a doctor can be contacted either on phone 021-34412965 – 021-34412966 or a doctor can be approached via a video link http://doxy.me/lnhconsultation or Liaquat National Hospital’s website lnh.edu.pk, the LNH official added.

PIMA’s free service

On Thursday, over 100 consultants and health specialists offered their services to the Pakistan Islamic Medical Association (PIMA) to help deal with calls and queries of common people, who are calling on its telemedicine facility number to seek medical advice after out-patient departments (OPDs) at various public and private hospitals were closed to contain the spread of coronavirus in the country.

“Today, out a panel of consultants and experts crossed the figure of 100, who offered their services to help people in need of medical advice. An overwhelming number of phone and WhatsApp calls are being received on our helpline numbers by people who can’t go to hospitals for seeking medical help,” said Prof Dr Atif Hafeez, a senior ENT specialist and office-bearer of PIMA, while talking to The News.

PIMA had launched a free of charge telemedicine project on Tuesday to provide health and medical consultation to people at their homes, for which over 100 medical consultants have volunteered their services, while several general practitioners (GPs) have been hired by the association to provide telemedicine consultation to people in the country.

“We have launched this telemedicine service in collaboration with the Al-Khidmat Welfare Organisation to provide medical consultation to people in distress so that they could remain at their homes and seek medical advice from trained and qualified doctors,” said Dr Hafeez.

The telemedicine facility is being provided through telephone and WhatsApp calling facility initially, and for this purposes, PIMA has publicised three phone numbers on which people can call and seek medical advice from general practitioners, who would initially be available for 12 hours a day.

“For instance, if a person is having some abdominal pain, he or she can call on our helpline and a general practitioner would answer the call. If the issue with the caller is minor and manageable, the GP would prescribe the medicine and give advice; otherwise, the caller would be referred to some consultant,” Dr Hafeez said.