The Common Services Center has launched a dedicated helpline on WhatsApp called ‘CSC Health Services Helpdesk’ on WhatsApp to provide a digitally inclusive teleconsultation solution for people including in rural and remotest parts of India.
The helpdesk on WhatsApp makes it easy for people to seek support from administration, consult with doctors, access a wide range of Covid related resources and get their queries addressed.
The CSC Health Services Helpdesk on WhatsApp is free to use and will be available in Hindi and English. To access the helpdesk, all that WhatsApp users need to do is simply to send ‘Hi’ to the number +917290055552 and select the options to get connected to a doctor.
The CSC WhatsApp Helpdesk adopts a holistic approach towards primary health care needs for citizens, especially those in remote areas. It has been developed as an important and easily accessible extension of CSC’s goal to deliver healthcare services through channels that are socially, financially and digitally inclusive. The interactive WhatsApp helpdesk will guide users to an appropriate doctor based on their specific health requirements across the areas of general health as well as related to Covid-19.
Dr. Dinesh Kumar Tyagi, CEO, CSC e-Governance Services India Limited, said “We are deeply committed in ensuring that rural citizens get the best access to healthcare and infrastructural services. CSC’s tele-health consultation has played an important role in providing primary healthcare services at the grass-root level. We are confident that an extension of this on WhatsApp will be our next lever in ensuring that primary healthcare services are available to the remotest population in our country. This chatbot has been uniquely built as a customised solution which will be beneficial for providing common services to people in India.We are thankful to WhatsApp for their collaboration, determination and all round support to make this chatbot so easy and seamless to use for people of India.”
Commenting on the launch, Shivnath Thukral, Public Policy Director, WhatsApp India, said “Over the last one year, we’ve been making several efforts to ensure citizen focused services can be delivered on WhatsApp in order to make governance more engaging and easy, simple and efficient for citizens. We are proud of the work we have done in this area, specially across health and access to Covid resources. CSC’s Health Services Helpline on WhatsApp will be a first of its kind tele-consultation chatbot in India. We are optimistic that this chatbot will prove to be an easy, convenient and reliable source of primary health care needs for people in India. Through our partnership with CSC we will continue to find innovative ways of making healthcare and other services more digitally and socially inclusive.”
The CSC Health Services Helpline has been developed by Infobip Technologies.