: Dads Slipped Disc Inspires Son to Connect Rural India to Doctors For Just Rs 99 #IndiaNEWS #Rajasthan O In 2014, Dr Subhash Mehta, a Rajasthan-based general surgeon, suffered a slipped disc. While

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Dads Slipped Disc Inspires Son to Connect Rural India to Doctors For Just Rs 99 #IndiaNEWS #Rajasthan
O In 2014, Dr Subhash Mehta, a Rajasthan-based general surgeon, suffered a slipped disc. While undergoing treatment, his medical practice had to be put on hold, as he was rendered bed ridden during the recovery period.
Since most of Dr Mehta’s patients belonged to rural areas, they could now no longer travel and visit him for consultations in Kota. So to deal with this sudden gap, he decided to hold consultations over video calls.
Dr Mehta’s son, Shreyans (30), an industrial engineer who was working with a startup, decided to take a leave to help his ailing father. “I picked up a laptop and secured all possible internet dongles to ensure there was adequate internet connectivity so that my father could reach the patients. After we started, the number of patients reached close to 5,000 in just 45 days,�? he tells The Better India.
Shreyans says that while interacting with the villagers, he realised the burden of high costs of medical treatment borne by the financially weak rural residents.
“Very few doctors prefer treating residents of rural areas, who, as a result, have to travel to urban areas and spend around Rs 500 for a trip. Often, the patient does not travel alone and is accompanied by a relative or friend. The cost of consultation and medicines add to the expenses. Sometimes, the trip becomes more expensive than the treatment cost itself, especially when follow-ups are involved,�? he says.
MedCords conducting medical camps at a pharmacy before COVID-19.
This inspired Shreyans to quit his job altogether and develop a digital platform to save thousands of rural patients from the hassle of such high costs, and make medical care accessible to them for as low as Rs 99.
‘A 360 degree solution’
Shreyans says 95 per cent of the patients who came to his father were satisfied with the video consultation. This further fuelled the idea to digitise medical consultations in Shreyans’ mind.
He scaled up the model to 12 villages, including neighbouring states such as Madhya Pradesh and Maharashtra. By the beginning of 2015, he had expanded his reach to 800 villages and reached states such as Uttar Pradesh and Bihar.
His experience only taught him more about the issues that patients in rural India face.
“My work revealed that doctors spent an average time of 120 seconds with one patient. So the money and time a patient spends on only a couple of minutes is unfair. Many were disappointed when the doctors were unavailable. Moreover, as patients did not always stick to a single doctor, many medical practitioners did not have their history as well. Hence, the patientp�&H���[��H܈[���[��H�ؙ�ٝZ[��Y����[�ۛ�ۈ�H��܋8��H�^ˈ

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