UAE: 500,000 medical consultations done virtually in the past year

Abu Dhabi - The audio and video consultations allowed Seha's physicians to evaluate, diagnose and treat from a distance amid the pandemic

The Covid-19 pandemic forced a digital transformation in every sector — even healthcare. In the past year, hundreds of thousands of people opted for virtual treatment over in-person appointments.

The Abu Dhabi Health Services Company (Seha) announced on Monday that its Telemedicine Virtual Outpatient Clinic (VOPC) exceeded 500,000 consultations since its launch in 2020, accounting for 10 per cent of the outpatient appointments across the network.

The service’s remote solutions via audio and video consultations have allowed Seha’s physicians to evaluate, diagnose and treat from a distance.

Dr Marwan Al Kaabi, acting chief operations officer at Seha, said: “VOPC continues to play an essential role in our efforts to combat the pandemic while continuing to deliver the world-class care we are renowned for, proving immensely successful and efficient in allowing patients to receive short-term or long-term care across Seha’s facilities through remote connections with their treating physicians. We are very excited about this latest milestone and we feel that this number will only continue to grow steadily especially as we continue to enhance our digital and technological capabilities overall.”

Once a patient is scheduled for and consents to a telemedicine consultation appointment, they will receive a call from the physician’s office to confirm patient details.

The call will then be patched through to the physician or healthcare professional for the confidential consultation session. Once the call is complete, the patient will be able to access the consultation report through SEHA’s mobile application.

Additionally, Seha has introduced other strategic initiatives to combat the Covid-19 outbreak, including designating healthcare facilities exclusively for treating Covid-19, establishing 25 drive-through testing facilities nationwide that have seen over 5,953,985 visitors to-date, introducing a dedicated WhatsApp hotline to respond to the community’s coronavirus-related concerns and questions, and easy access to medication by launching a medication home delivery service that has delivered over 138,237 prescriptions to patients’ homes.

reporters@khaleejtimes.com

• Abu Dhabi