COVID has thrown the world into utter chaos. Modern health infrastructure collapsed; as the world was caught off guard by the virus. Zoonotic infections, infections transmitted from animals to humans have wreaked havoc for decades, and this time it is no different. Belonging to the family of viruses affecting the respiratory system, this virus resulted in significant mortalities especially in people with comorbidities.
Governments worldwide had no option but to impose lockdowns that caused great economic suffering. People relying on daily wages suffered the most, and India saw many of them taking painfully long journeys on foot to reach their original villages. Such dreaded pictures still haunt us, and we are not in a condition to go through the same again.
Another such industry that was hit hard was the tourism industry. The whole world was in limbo with flights getting canceled, causing many problems to people. The tourism sector saw one of the highest layoffs among different industries.
Flamingo Transworld, one of the biggest names in the tourism industry in Western India, was one such company affected by lockdowns. But considering every adversity as an opportunity, Flamingo ventured into three new business verticals that comprised of MediFlam, dealing with online doctor consultation in India and medical tourism, Flamingo Educare, a student consultancy startup, and Flamingo Consulting Group, dealing with digital media business solutions helping companies to grow.
MediFlam was officially inaugurated on 25th October 2020, and despite being a COVID period, our efforts bore fruit, with the first patient arriving in January 2021. The most challenging part was that the patient was a 23-year-old boy from Bangladesh requiring a kidney transplant.
As it was a transplant requiring a lot of formalities and paperwork, we at MediFlam, handled it very sensitively. All the required paperwork was done, beforehand, so when the patient arrives with the donor, all things are done hassle-free, causing the least problems to them. The other challenge clinically was that COVID was rampant during that period, and the patient had to be subjected to immunosuppression as he was supposed to get a transplant. Taking care of such a vulnerable patient was a herculean task, but thanks to teams at MediFlam and Apollo, Ahmedabad, the patient did not contract COVID.
The transplant surgery was done successfully, and the patient went back happily. From then onwards, MediFlam had the opportunity to handle cases that are considered tricky by the medical fraternity. Right from pediatric cataract, vascular malformation, retinal detachment to Stage 4 breast cancer, MediFlam had the opportunity to cater to a multitude of patients. The smiles on the faces of these patients inspire us to even do better work in the future. Our online platform is user-friendly, you need to register first on our portal, feed all your details, medical reports and search the specific doctor online.
MediFlam has got agreements with more than 85 multispecialty hospitals throughout India that have a very good brand value including, the like of Apollo group of hospitals, HCG group of hospitals, Fortis group of hospitals, etc. These hospitals have established a very good name for providing excellent healthcare facilities, thoroughly recognized and acknowledged by the medical fraternity throughout the world.
Affordability, high-quality treatment, and no waiting lists are some of the advantages that these hospitals offer to international patients. Apart from these, MediFlam has partnered with many single and super-specialty hospitals that can treat patients tailored to their specific requirements and affordable budgets. We at MediFlam, believe that access to good quality healthcare facilities is a fundamental right of a human being irrespective of his/her financial conditions.
The biggest part at MediFlam is that we do not serve international patients only. We also cater to domestic patients who may or may not have resources but need proper guidance. During COVID, getting out of the house was very risky, and people with chronic diseases like diabetes and hypertension were not able to meet their doctors regularly and these patients were more vulnerable to fatal outcomes due to COVID infections.
Keeping in mind the difficulties faced by patients, we set up a teleconsultation facility with more than 250 doctors spread across more than 25 specialties on our platform. Apart from this, we also have a second opinion facility on our platform which helps international patients to get more insights into their disease, diagnosis, or treatment plan that already has been given in their respective countries. Till now, we have conducted more than 250 teleconsultations and more than 100-second opinions on our platform.
The kind of cases that came across highlights the challenges we had to face, that too, withstanding two massive waves of coronavirus infections, the second one especially being so devastating. But with God’s grace, we were able to overcome them while simultaneously helping our patients. Recently one of our patients from Bangladesh got treated successfully in Mumbai and went back. Two of our patients went back happily to Mozambique after getting treated in Ahmedabad.
The smiles on the faces of these happy patients give us the fillip and enthusiasm to do even better in the future, making ourselves and our country proud. Apart from tie-ups with hospitals throughout India, we have tie-ups with hospitals in Turkey, Dubai, and Thailand. So, patients wanting treatment in these countries can also be taken care of.
We are happy that God gave us the inspiration to come up with something where we can help patients get the right treatment and guide them to arrive at a decision that suits them in the best possible way, a way that is affordable, reliable, and with the best therapeutic outcome. May the Almighty keep showering blessings on us so that we can keep up the good work in an ethical way, helping people in distress.
