As the number of coronavirus cases in Indonesia surge, doctors are working double-time for treating patients in hospitals and online via health-tech startups. This approach is becoming part of the national healthcare system very quickly. 26 year-old Doctor Mohammad Risandi Priatama has treated 10 people in the past month who had symptoms of COVID-19 at a busy West Java hospital. This is located in a designated virus ‘red-zone’. He also provided consultations for hundreds more via the app Alodokter. He said that since the healthcare facilities were limited, especially in his district, people need access to more information without having to go to the hospital.
There is a lack of protective gear and medical staff as there are less than 4,000 hospital beds for patients who are seriously ill coronavirus patients in the Indonesian archipelago of 270 million people. Thus, there is little capacity available to the authorities for managing what some experts have said is an epidemic that has not been discovered so far because of limited testing. In order to reduce the strain, the government is encouraging the public to use the so-called telehealth firms that can be used for accessing verified medical guidance, getting medication prescribed and delivered and getting free doctor consultations via telephone, video or text.
The largest telehealth firms in Indonesia, which include Alodokter, GrabHealth and Halodoc, have seen their usage skyrocket in the previous month. Nathanael Faibis, the chief executive of Alodokter, said that since hospitals are already crowded with patients, the government only wants priority patients to visit the emergency rooms. The patients who don’t require urgent hospitalization can be assisted online. The total number of visitors on the Alodokter website in March alone was 32 million. There have been more than 500,000 free consultations for the coronavirus since the first case was confirmed in Indonesia on 2nd March.
According to Grabhealth, their daily consultations had doubled and reached 10,000. The total number of COVID-19 cases recorded in Indonesia has reached 3,293. The death toll of the country is now 280, which is the highest in Asia outside of China, where the virus was first reported in December last year. The outbreak of the novel coronavirus has boosted the demand for telehealth all over the world. Millions flocked to these platforms in China as well, which include offerings from Alibaba Health Information Technology Ltd and Ping An Good Doctor.
Similar spikes have also been reported by European and U.S. firms. Teladoc Health Inc., the U.S. leader, saw double the usual demand with the number of remote weekly consultations rose to 100,000. However, Indonesia stands out in this all because the government itself is depending on these health-tech firms. On March 27th, its virus task force said that they would be adding links on their website for 20 tele-health services and a ‘digital call centre’ would be created for directing traffic. According to officials, they only want patients with mild COVID-19 symptoms to be treated via telehealth while those with worsening conditions should visit hospitals.
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