Consult with doctor through WhatsApp at no cost

To make it easy for the people to seek support from administration, consult with doctors and access a wide range of Covid-19 related resources, the Common Service Center has launched a digital helpline on WhatsApp to provide teleconsultation to people. The service called ‘CSC Health Services Helpdesk’, will enable people from rural and remote areas to get access to the healthcare services and get their queries resolved.  

Dr. Dinesh Kumar Tyagi, CEO, CSC e-Governance Services, said, “Our tele-health consultation has played an important role in providing primary healthcare services at the grassroot level. We are confident that an extension of this on WhatsApp will be our next level in ensuring that primary healthcare services are available to the remotest population in our country.” 

“This chatbot is a customised solution which will be beneficial for providing common services to the people,” he said adding that the free of cost teleconsultation will be available in both Hindi and English. 

To avail the facility, the WhatsApp users will have to send ‘Hi’ to the helpline number then the chatbot will reply with the welcome message where the user will have to select the language . Thereafter, it will ask whether a user has a health or covid related issue, after replying to the query it provides an option to interact with a doctor through call, audio or video consultation.  

Shivnath Thukral, Public Policy Director, WhatsApp, said, “Helpline on WhatsApp will be a first of its kind teleconsultation chatbot in India. We are optimistic that this will prove to be an easy, convenient and reliable source of primary healthcare needs for people.”