Can Startups be a solution for rural healthcare

The cloud-based health management platform not only connected people to doctors and facilitated follow-up consultations but also roped in the nearest medical stores to ensure people received the prescribed medications. Going a step further, the trio launched a platform called Sehat Sathi for local pharmacists. This was for people who did not own or know how to operate smartphones. They could go to the nearest medical shop and schedule a consultation with the help of the shop owner, who was often someone they recognised and were comfortable with. “When it comes to technology, some human touch and hand-holding are necessary in rural areas,” says Mehta.

MedCords raised seed funding of $1 million from Info Edge and WaterBridge in 2018. It started monetising its services only in January through affordable yearly and per-consultation subscription models through its app Aayu, which also stored health records digitally. In March, the startup raised another $3 million through angel investors Info Edge, WaterBridge and Astarc Ventures. It is yet to turn profitable.

“Today, we have 30 lakh registered patients from Rajasthan, UP, MP, Bihar, Maharashtra and Gujarat; 5,000 registered doctors and about 16,000 local medical stores on the platform,” says Mehta, whose startup got a huge push due to the Covid-19 lockdown that made people look for health care options either online or nearest to them.

“We used to get about 3,000 calls daily on the 24×7 helpline that was set up to assist people navigate the platform. And when Prime Minister Narendra Modi spoke about Atmanirbhar Bharat, we felt we were on the right track—that a hyperlocal, end-to-end channel powered by technology is a feasible and scalable solution to many problems in rural primary health care today.”

According to the 2011 Census, about 69 percent of India’s total population lives in rural areas. On paper, the public health system in these regions is an elaborate structure with multiple levels: First, sub-centres that cater to about five villages with a population between 3,000 and 5,000 people. Then there are primary health centres (PHCs) for every six sub-centres, followed by community health centres (CHCs), sub-district and district hospitals. Then come the medical colleges.

However, a report titled Strengthening Public Health Delivery, published by the Confederation of Indian Industry (CII) on August 17, suggests that the public health system suffered from several issues, including shortage of skilled doctors and nurses, auxiliary nursing midwives (ANM), Assisted Social Health Activist (ASHA) and anganwadi workers, besides lack of equipment and diagnostic tools.