Dr. Saurabh's Child Clinic

Being old school ,I was never a believer in video consultation in medicine. I always thought that unless I see a patient and examine them, I will not be able to do justice to the consultation. I refused to do video calls many times in my last twelve years of practice.

Covid pandemic challenged my belief. As I cannot call a covid positive patient to my clinic , I have no other option left other than to do a video consultation for them. I started hesitantly as I was not comfortable doing it.Then one morning everything changed ,I got a SMS from one of my patient’s father -” Doctor my whole family got Covid, I need a video consultation for my two year old daughter Mohini urgently” . I replied – “Will plan it as soon as I reach Clinic.”

Video consultation for Mohini was scheduled for 12 pm. My receptionist reminded me to call the patient 5 min to noon. I made a video call on whats app to the registered number.I could see Mohini in her fathers lap as the call started.As soon as the father saw me, he just broke down and started crying inconsolably, while crying he said that now Mohini will recover fast because we saw you.

I was taken aback with this kind of reaction and to see that just seeing a doctor on a video call matters to a patient so much. It gives them so much confidence in these difficult times.I consoled the father, did the consultation, and told him that Mohini will recover in 72 hours as symptoms for her were mild. I ended the consultation by emailing him the digital prescription.

After this episode, I was able to overcome my hesitation of doing video consultation and was able to help hundreds of covid positive patients by doing video consultation. It made me understand how a doctor’s presence or just seeing them gives so much emotional support to a patient and how it helps in healing.