The state government of Haryana in northern India has kicked off a project with Deloitte to provide virtual home care services to patients with mild to moderate symptoms of COVID-19 amid the ongoing second wave of infections in the country.
Sanjeevani Pariyojana, or The Life Project, provides patients with support and resources to manage their care at home, including access to virtual triage, COVID-19 field hospitals and in-patient facilities.
It was piloted in the Karnal district before being expanded to other districts in Haryana.
WHY IT MATTERS
India is experiencing an overwhelming second wave of COVID-19 infections which started in April. As of late, it recorded almost 27 million COVID-19 cases with more than 300,000 deaths.
With the right processes and care, it may be possible to support the home recovery of nearly 90% of COVID-19 patients, according to a press release from Deloitte.
Under the project, a remote command centre will be established to manage scarce resources, including hospital beds, oxygen supply and ambulances. About 200 supervised medical students will be mobilised to provide virtual health care and distribute home care kits comprising masks, oximeters, thermometers and medicines.
Mobile pharmacies and advanced life support ambulances will also be deployed, while a community hospital will be equipped with medical equipment, especially oxygen concentrators, to handle the surge of COVID-19 patients.
Moreover, the project will be extending medical care to rural areas where there is low awareness of the second wave of the virus and its treatment.
According to Deloitte, lessons from the project will be used to create new models of public health engagement and collaboration. A playbook will be developed for other areas to replicate.
THE LARGER TREND
To help curb the rising coronavirus infections in India, volunteer doctors from US-based organisations have provided free teleconsultations for patients with mild COVID-19 symptoms to keep them out of emergency rooms.
Tech giants Google and Facebook have teamed up with the Indian government to help locate critical medical resources. Google launched a search tool for spotting testing centres, hospital resources and vaccination sites, along with a platform that allows people to pool available hospital beds and medical oxygen, while Facebook helped in developing a vaccine finder tool.
ON THE RECORD
“This collaboration will ‘expand the medical ward’ by delivering help to those who can recover at home, thereby preserving capacity at larger hospitals to treat the critically ill. This approach was designed to be ‘fit for purpose’ and may yield a model to enable broader health equity and access to critical health resources in the region and beyond,” Deloitte Global CEO Punit Renjen said in the statement.