Why pandemic is a blessing in disguise for patients in rural areas
Francis Osiemo, a clinician and the Chief Operating Officer of Sasa Doctor attends to a patient.
What you need to know:
- African countries have lagged behind in integrating new technologies into their healthcare systems.
- Many public and missionary hospitals in Kenya still favour walk-ins over online booking appointment systems
Because most doctors generally prefer to work in urban centres where the population is dense, patients living in remote, rural areas continue to face very limited access to healthcare.
Most patients would rather travel for kilometres on end to seek medical attention.
Dr Tanvi Shah, a medical practitioner working in the UK, US and Kenya, says the reason disadvantaged groups continue to experience poor access to medical care is because many African countries have lagged behind in integrating new technologies into their healthcare systems.
“While more advanced nations had adopted concepts such as telemedicine even before Covid19, many public and missionary hospitals in Kenya still favoured walk-ins over online booking appointment systems or tele-consultation systems, at least until Covid19 arrived,” Dr Shah told HealthyNation.
She says Covid19 has acted as a catalyst to the integration of digital technologies into healthcare. This is after measures such as social distancing and restriction of movement brought to the fore the need for innovative ways of ensuring people still could access healthcare.
Doctor to patient ratio
Dr Shah has invented a digital health tool called ‘The Daktari’ which offers four different modules: an online booking appointment system, a patient management system, a tele-consult programme and an e-prescription module.
The online booking appointment system works to help finetune appointments in public hospitals in such a manner that once a patient books an appointment on their mobile phone, they immediately get a text message informing them when and at what time they can see a doctor.
“People used to wake up very early to be seen early. You have 10 people arrive at the hospital at 7am, whereas the first is seen at 9am because that is when the doctor arrives,” she adds.
Dr Shah says this feature is not only useful for healthcare facilities in rural Kenya, but also in facilities located in urban centres where the doctor to patient ratio still does not meet the stipulated threshold.
