November 4, 2021 - The eKonsulta Project is the brainchild of DGE Mildred Vitangcol which serves to help people by giving them online medical consultations. This project became a necessity during the pandemic as all hospitals were reaching their maximum capacity. The growth of online platforms during the pandemic gave a chance to people to connect with doctors for their health-related needs.
Rotary Club of Paranaque Midtown’s very own President-Elect Sharon Callejo, was the first to connect the club to DGE Mildred and her eKonsulta team. Also included in the team was Rotary Club of Las Pinas headed by PE Dr.Joseph Manapsal, and the doctors from Las Pinas Doctors Hospital headed by Dr. Maria
Teresa Reyes. PE Sharon was able to bring in the pediatric doctors of LPDH to participate in the planning and execution of this project. There was a one-month preparation for this project before it was launched in November.
The project was divided into two parts: The online consultation with doctors and the distribution of medicines and vitamins to the beneficiary. The online component was done via Zoom. The beneficiaries at Poultry Wakas coordinated with their community leaders to go online via Zoom. They set up three online stations using mobile phones so they can meet the doctors online. The doctors joined the online consultations from their offices at LPDH. The online clinics were handled by the following doctors: Dr. Dyanica Carpio, Dr. Norlisah Pangcatan, Dr. Hannah del Prado, Dr. Merou Panizales, and Dr. Veejay Buena.
After each consultation, the doctors would write down the prescriptions that would be passed to PE Sharon for collection. These would then be used for buying the medicines for distribution the following day. Each consultation took an average of 15 to 20 minutes thus making the run time of the project over 4 hours long.
This project was a success as 5 doctors were able to give medical consultations to 30 children on this day. This platform helped the children find solutions to their ailments all because they were able to meet a doctor, something that is very hard to do in the middle of a pandemic. This program in partnership with the doctors of LPDH and chaired by PE Sharon gave medical consultations online to 30 children (0 - 11 y/o) at Poultry Wakas.
The eKonsulta Project was envisioned to be a two part project: The online consultation and the medicine distribution. After the online consultation with doctors, all the prescriptions were then collected by PE Sharon. This will then be sorted so that the purchase of medicines and supplements could be made easier. Thanks to the sponsorship of LCP RJ through his company BJ Marthel International Inc, the team was able to fund and purchase the items on the prescriptions from the partner drugstore.
All these were sorted and placed in individual bags stapled together with the prescription and the name of the patient child. This made the distribution much easier by the club and the community leaders. The team aimed to do the distribution as soon as possible after the consultation. This was so all the urgent cases or those who needed the medicines badly were resolved immediately. The distribution was led by Rtn Tersh Tupas who received the bulk of the medicines from PE Sharon two days after the online consultation. The packages were then checked one last time against the list on the database to prevent mismatch errors during distribution. After checking, Rtn Tersh and LCP RJ then delivered the packages to Poultry Wakas where the kids and their parents were waiting. Distribution took almost an hour to complete with the help of the Poultry Wakas community leaders Ms Vicky and Ms Precy. All the packages were accounted for and were delivered to the right patients.
Seeing the joy on the faces of the parents showed the team that it was mission accomplished. By taking away the roadblock that is the unavailability of doctors, the club was able to put together a creative solution for the Poultry Wakas community. This platform is seen to be repeatable because of its relevance to the times. With no end in sight for the pandemic, this program can be done over and over again to service communities that could not get immediate medical consultations for their medical needs.
The club would like to congratulate all the participants in this project:
• PE Sharon Callejo for gathering the pediatric doctors and partners
• Rtn Tersh Tupas for helping in the online platform communications and medicine distribution
• Rtn Raymond for helping in queue management during the online consultation
