Visiting Indian Hospitals Before, During and After COVID

Abstract

The prevailing COVID-19 situation has brought in temporary and permanent changes in the attitude and lifestyle of people. Starting from Hand sanitizers and face masks, it extends to online classrooms and work from home culture. In case of visiting hospitals and medications, people with pre-existing medical conditions and minor health issues tend to delay or avoid visiting hospitals due to fear of infection, which is dangerous. Further, people or patients tend to access several alternatives and precautions. The alternatives include home remedies, ayurvedic medication, yoga and meditation. On the other hand, hospitals are trying to adapt online consulting and telemedicine. Besides, Cancellation or delay of nonemergency surgeries became inevitable in the lockdown phase. This survey conducted among the people of Erode district, Tamilnadu to study the perception of people concerning visiting hospitals for health issues. The results show that fear of infection, financial and transportation difficulties are the major factors which affected people from visiting hospital. Also, changing trends like Telemedicine and home remedies are likely to be permanently opted by people. In Brief, the outcomes reveal the changing attitude of people towards medication and hospital visiting habits.