Vice President Leni Robredo repeated her call on Monday, April 26, for volunteer doctors, particularly psychiatrists and psychologists, to address the thousands of requests her Bayanihan E-Konsulta initiative has been receiving.

A few days after she called for volunteers earlier this month, the vice president temporarily closed the program to onboard and brief the first batch of doctors. This free medical tele-consultation service has 642 volunteer doctors, including 1,974 non medical volunteer involved in the day-to-day operations.

But Robredo admitted that they sometimes could not accommodate all the requests they get in a day despite operating for almost 24 hours, a reason why she made a call again for another cohort of volunteer doctors. This time, though, she specifically called those with specializations in the field of psychology and psychiatry.

“We are already overwhelmed by the generosity and selflessness of our volunteer doctors but we need more so we can serve more. Since all consultations are through telephone, you can be anywhere in the country,” she said in a Facebook post.

“Our call bridging agents will facilitate the calls between you and the patients through three-way calls. There is no minimum number of hours that you can volunteer in a week. We know how busy all of you are so we will adjust to your convenience and availability,” Robredo told the doctors.

The Bayanihan E-Konsulta is open to COVID-19 and non-COVID patients in the National Capital Region Plus (NCR Plus) bubble. It aims to decongest hospitals that are often overwhelmed with the number of patients needing medical advice and care.

The Office of the Vice President (OVP) wants to make medical advice accessible to those without money to pay for the consultation. This is why the initiative is being run on a free platform that would not require an internet connection.

As of Friday, April 23, the OVP’s E-Konsulta had thus far received 25,494 medical requests, which is an average of about 1,500 per day.

The vice president noted the gaps that need to be filled in responding to the requests of the public that are sent to her office’s medical tele-consultation program.

“It has been both a whirlwind and a rollercoaster ride for all of us. What we were initially imagining to be a simple low-tech teleconsult operations to fill in a few gaps, turned out to be the huge, complicated network that it is now,” she said.

Robredo said they also need more surgeons, neurologists, allergologists, gastrointerologists, endocrinologists, and cardiologists.

The Bayanihan E-Konsulta was launched on April 7 as a way to help those without access to doctors get the medical advice they need.

After consultation, the OVP sends everyone a COVID Care Kit, which includes, among others, face masks, sanitizers, pulse oximeter, thermometer, basic medicines, and a COVID-19 monitoring sheet.