A team of doctors who are volunteering by offering Tanzanians free consultations virtually during the pandemic
In Tanzania, the accessibility of health and medical services to the public has been affected by inadequate funds, inadequacy of trained medical personnel, and poor infrastructures. These challenges escalated further during the upsurge of COVID-19 in Tanzania.
Initially, despite taking precautions, both the public and private institutions thought it would not strike the public but the first patient was screened on 16th March 2020. The number of sick patients succumbing to respiratory illness increased drastically in the three weeks following that. There was a short of beds instantly, and doctors were overwhelmed with duties. There was fear that hospitals were the source of infection and patients with other co-morbidity could not attend hospital.
Roverlabs Tanzania sought to resolve this challenge through bringing to the patients a platform of virtual diagnosis and treatment, which is easily accessible, low-cost, privacy secured and convenient to both the patients and the doctors. "We decided to establish an online chat-bot through a website we designed specifically for this purpose. We formed a team of volunteer doctors encompassing of equal numbers of male and female doctors," says the founder Dr. Atish. R. Shah.
They then created a Facebook page to spread the word about their initiative and that the services would be "completely free" and available 24/7. For This they divided themselves into four groups each having a six-hour shift everyday during which that particular group would answer questions pertaining to COVID-19 and also give medical advise to persons seeking it.
On World Innovation and Creativity Day, 21 April 2021, the Friedrich Naumann Foundation for Freedom in Sub-Saharan Africa invited entrepreneurs, innovators and creatives across the region to submit the most innovative solutions they have made that have helped their initiatives, start ups, businesses re-establish or survive during the COVID-19 pandemic. This forms part of the FNF 2021 global campaign titled RE:START21
We ask, what can we learn from the pandemic? Let's talk new ideas! #Restart21