46% Indians taking online medical consultation amid COVID-19 fear says survey

New Delhi, Dec 16: At least 46 per cent Indians still prefer to connect to their doctors over call for medical consultation instead of physical visits to the doctors, a new survey has revealed on Wednesday.

The survey conducted by online doctor consultation platform -- Mount Virtual Hospital -- was done across metros covering Delhi-NCR, Mumbai, Kolkata, Chennai, Uttar Pradesh and Bihar.

The data was collected from age group of 20 to 85 years. The total respondents in the survey were 2,406 which included 1,455 males and around 951 females.

The findings showed that about 70 per cent of the respondents who had diabetes, heart problems, blood pressure issues, cancer or kidney diseases, who are at increased risk of severe illness from the Covid-19, still want to get the consultation done with their doctors over call be it for follow up consultation or new consultation.

"With people using digital mediums to connect to doctors, we are observing behavioural change and it will impact the health care sector positively in times to come," Sanjay Singh, Founder of Mount Virtual Hospital, said in a statement.

According to the report, 60 per cent of the women surveyed in age group of 18-45 years, wanted to connect digitally with their doctors for getting consultation related to dermatology, nutrition and diet and mental health issues.

The data also showed that 80 per cent of the men in the age group of 45-85 years of age still prefer to have online consultation due to fear of Covid infection keeping their age in mind.

"We have observed almost 200 per cent jump in demand for online consultation. Many cancer patients who want to avoid risk of Covid infection are connecting to us over video calls to discuss their problems," said Rahul Bhargava, Director, Department of Clinical Hematology & Bone Marrow Transplant, Fortis Hospital.

"With a large educated and technology-friendly population, India is now ready to take tele-consultations to the next level and utilise it for complex super specialities as well," Bhargava added.