By Gaggan Sabherwal
BBC South Asia Diaspora Reporter
19th May 2021
Over 160 Indian-origin as well as other local doctors in the UK have come together to start a telemedicine virtual hub to help relieve pressure on doctors in India who are at the front fighting the covid pandemic’s second wave.
Through this project these UK-based doctors are using their experience in treating corona virus to give free advice over video calls to medical professionals working in some of India’s hospitals.
It was UK based Prof. Parag Singhal’s idea to start this online project after he saw the devastation the covid crisis had caused in India. Prof. Singhal is a Consultant Physician who works at the Weston General Hospital in Southwest England and is also the Secretary of BAPIO (British Association of Physicians of Indian Origin), which is a national voluntary organisation that represents Indian origin doctors in the UK.
(Photo credit : BBC)
Just like most of the doctors on this project, Prof. Singhal too shares a personal connection with India. He is originally from New Delhi which is one of the cities that is hit the hardest by the current covid crisis.
'‘’India is our home country, we were born there and we were educated there, we still have links to India, we have got family, friends. It is quite a dire situation, and it hurts us to see those scenes when patients are not able to get health care they deserve, when there is lack of oxygen lack of beds. I have phone calls every day from my relatives, friends, that there's difficulty in finding beds, difficulty in finding oxygen. The stories are shocking and brutal and the medical staff there are simply exhausted and burnt out because there were so many patients to be looked after. And so, we at BAPIO thought we should set up this project and help our colleagues in these challenging times’’, Prof. Singhal told me over a video call from Bristol.
As a part of this telemedicine virtual hub, the UK doctors have been helping and assisting medicos in India on three main issues – reporting on covid through HRCT scans, running virtual ward rounds to help and support the less serious cases, and also running online clinical discussions with local physicians working in primary care centres. The aim, Dr Singhal says, is to empower them and give them confidence in managing patients who are at home and help reduce the pressure on the already overwhelmed Indian hospitals.
‘’When covid patients are discharged from intensive care to another ward, they still need a lot of after care, but at present there aren’t enough doctors to look after them and so we started this virtual ward rounds where the UK doctors discuss cases with the Indian doctors of patients who have been shifted from intensive care and advise our Indian counterparts on their care and management, Prof. Singhal said.
Not just Indian-origin doctors but even local British doctors have been volunteering and supporting this effort. A rota system designed by Prof. Singhal has roped in various UK consultants’ help. The doctors assist their Indian counterparts on different days and at their convenience. With the time difference between India and the UK, most of the UK doctors generally help with this project early in their morning which is near mid-day for India.
However, UK doctors do not directly deal with the patients in India and are only help and assist Indian doctors with advice - so the final decision on the treatment and medication that the patient needs to be given is made by the Indian doctors.
(Photo credit : Kingsway Hospitals Nagpur)
Now due to the fact that the UK doctors are not dealing with the patients, there is no government approval required but however this telemedicine project has received support and clarification from UK’s General Medical Council (GMC).
Currently through this project BAPIO is helping and supporting hospitals in and across Nagpur with plans to further expand and help more Indian hospitals and medics across India in the coming days and weeks.
Prof. Singhal remembers a call which he says he will never forget. It took place a few days ago when he was on a virtual ward round with one of the doctors in India and they were contemplating as to whether they should start a patient on steroids or not as the patient was diabetic and they were worried about the side effects the steroids could have on him.
Prof. Singhal was also worried that the patient could get Mucormycosis which is a serious but rare fungal infection. And so, after a lot of discussion, the Indian doctor decided to not give the patient any steroids and for the next few days Prof. Singhal held his nerves. A few days later the patient did get better. This way the doctors avoided any side effects of the steroids and possibly also Mucormycosis and saved the patient’s life.
It is due to such timely and valuable help and support that the Indian doctors like Vimmi Goel who works at Kingsway Hospital in Nagpur is grateful for. She says that she and her team have learnt a lot from the UK doctors and have found their advice and expertise on covid useful and can’t thank them enough for their help and support in these challenging times.
(Photo credit : Kingsway Hospitals Nagpur)
Dr. Goel tells me, ‘’ The UK doctors have already been through this wave and have seen how patients are going to behave and they know how the virus is going to behave in the next coming weeks and they also know that the corona virus wave will subside and that we just need to hold up for the next few weeks or so’’.
She further added, ‘’Now because of so many patients coming to us, our doctors and staff are already physically and mentally overwhelmed. We are tired and looking for support in any form and from any quarter. And so, all the help BAPIO has been providing us has been a huge support and a huge relief to us. It has helped to ease a lot of problems out for us’’.
(Photo credit : Kingsway Hospitals Nagpur)
Her colleague Dr. Rajkumar Khandelwal who is the chief radiologist, and the director of Kingsway Hospital says, he and his team are also very thankful for the help they have been receiving from doctors in the UK especially around the reporting of the covid HRCT scans.
Dr. Khandelwal said, ‘’At present our hospital is doing more than 250 HRCT covid scans a day and due to the current situation in India it has become a very big challenge and task for us to check, read and report these scans and so the radiologists in the UK who are a part of this virtual hub have stepped in to help us. They have been checking these scans and are reporting these cases for us. They are sending the scan reports within 10 to 15 minutes and because of that we can finish our work on time’’.
Besides running this virtual telemedicine hub, the BAPIO team have also been raising funds to pay for oxygen equipment to be sent to India as well as for tele-consulting helplines to be set up and to provide food to those in need. So far raised they have over £190,000 and are hoping to raise more funds for this noble cause.
Since the start of this virtual hub a few weeks ago, around 500 more doctors in the UK have signed up to this project and Prof. Singhal and the BAPIO team are looking at expanding this project even further and help more India hospitals and doctors in these challenging times.
Links to BBC articles : BBC Hindi : https://bbc.in/3yChmZ8
BBC Telugu : https://www.bbc.com/telugu/international-57164287
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