4. DISCUSSION
During this COVID-19 pandemic, especially during the lockdown period,
telemedicine can play a crucial role in providing correct and
appropriate medical advice to the patients in their homes, avoiding
close contact and overcrowding of the outpatient clinics and thus
preventing the further spread of COVID-19. Several healthcare facilities
worldwide have established telemedicine clinics with good experience in
providing support to healthcare workers and medical advice to the
patients using technology.7 Based on the emerging
evidence regarding the effective and efficient use of telemedicine
healthcare service, various countries are now approving the policies and
procedures for the potential implementation of this service in different
specialties.8 In our study, we found that the majority
of the calls were received during the lockdown period (data not
presented). When the lockdown was eased, the number of calls received by
our telemedicine service decreased as more people started visiting the
outpatient facilities of the two hospitals. The majority of the calls
were received by medicine and dermatology specialties. Several other
studies across the world have also demonstrated that telemedicine
services not only provide fast healthcare delivery to the people but are
also cost-effective.9 However, one of the major
limitations of the implementation of telemedicine services, epically in
developing countries such as ours, is the limited access to the internet
as well as the limited access to the technology in remote areas.