We can now call doctors at home if someone suddenly fell ill thanks to some experimental apps being operated in the Capital. Apps like ‘Daktar Dako’, ‘Appoint Me’ are offering these services for city dwellers who can call doctors home in emergencies.
Patients and their families are saying that these apps are helpful in avoiding hassles like— hours of waiting in long queues to see a doctor in hospitals; state-owned and private alike, reaching on time through severe traffic congestion and inability to avail treatment in an emergency.
But, people closed to the initiative think otherwise as the poor people will not reap benefit out of it.
Uzzal Balo, a resident in the Capital’s Green Road area, couldn’t figure out what to do when his mother suddenly fell ill. He then contacted an online based medical service to call a doctor. The response was quick. Doctor reached his home in five minutes; found that Renu Balo, uzzal’s mother became weak because her blood pressure went low. She was back on her feet after medications were administered.
Needless to say, Uzzal was very satisfied at this prompt medical care. He said, “My mom became very ill. If I had to call a CNG (cng-run auto) or rickshaw, she would have become further ill and you know how the traffic in Dhaka is.”
“In such emergencies, app-based initiatives like these are really helpful,” he added.
Apoint Me mobile app allows to call nurses as well as doctors. This app initially started their operation at the Uttara area in the Capital. Proprietor of Apoint Me Faisal Ahmed told Bangla Tribune, “We have now expanded our services throughout the entire Dhaka city. 50 doctors and 100 nurses are affiliated with us at the moment. We will launch our mobile app in the October.”
He said that, the doctors’ visitation fee in between Tk 1000-1200 while the nurses charge Tk 500. If the nurses’ services are availed by the hour, then their fee is 100 per hour. In case of administering hormonal injection or seeing an ICU patient, it will cost Tk. 1000 because experience nurses are required for such cases.
Executive of Daktar Dako, Taposh Sarkar told Bangla Tribune, “We launched our app on an experimental basis from this August. We are getting great respond but, we are not being able to provide all doctors according to the requirements of the patients.”
He said that, their doctors cannot provide adequate treatments needed in cases where a patient faints or a complication occurred that requires specialists’ attention.
“We recommend them to quickly take the patient to hospital,” Taposh said.
He also said that, they send doctors to patients’ residence for general treatment and their doctors do not suggest any particular diagnostic centres for tests that may be needed, rather the patients are told to do the tests in their chosen diagnostic farms.
Taposh said, “We are charging Tk 1000 for a Senior Doctor (over 10 hears of experiecnce) Tk 600 for a Junior Doctor per visitation including payment of his helper and trip costs.”
Daktar Dako initially offered their services in Dhanmondi, Kalabagan and Green Road area of tht Capital. They plan to expand eventually to cover the entire Dhaka City by November.
President of Health Rights Movement’s National Committee, Professor Dr. Rashid-I-Mahbub told Bangla Tribune, “A doctor can provide primary health care on a home call. Once upon a time, this was a common trend in our country where doctors used to see patients at home.”
“The poor patients are unlikely to get benefit from this,” the Professor added.