TN doctors band together to quell self-medication fad

MADURAI: At a time when people are facing a lot of hardship due to the second wave of Covid-19, a team of twenty doctors has launched an initiative to give free consultations to people. Its focus is to find the infection at its early stages and help people avoid self-medication and complications. One can reach the doctors on 744837-6060. 

It is the brainchild of Dr Jeyan (25) of Jeyan Hospital in Madurai. Execution occurred after he shared the idea with Chairperson of BOOM Welfare Community Trust N Sharmila. Jeyan spoke with his batchmates, seniors, and juniors, who volunteered. “We were five when we started out in the first week of May. Now we are 20. We took to social media to spread the message and got a decent start, approximately 40 calls a day. Now, we get at least 400-500. We get overseas calls as well, including those of Tamils living in Australia,” he said.

A bane indeed!
Sharmila said that many resort to self-medication for want of knowledge about how to handle the virus. This helps the virus to grow and complicate their health. “Through free consultation, people would get suggestions and advice. We will guide them only after considering their medical history.”

Explaining the procedure, Jeyan said the calls would be picked up by Sharmila and her assistant Anu, who would redirect the call to a doctor. Two doctors would do the consultation every 90 minutes. Working on a rotational basis would reduce the burden on them and help them strike a balance with their professional lives. None is over 30 years. The team has doctors from both government and private sectors.  

Meet the team
They are Jeyan; Ananthy; Palani; Praveen Arthik; Arul; S Nivethita; A Nivethitha; Sathya; Janarthanan; Yuva; Karun; Dheep; Niranjan; Kiruthika; Kavya; Harini; Roshna; Gayathri; Sathyalakshmi; and Gowri.