E-Paper
PGIMER to resume OPD services from November 2
To ensure adequate physical distancing, only 50 patients would be allowed at each OPD.
To facilitate non-Covid patients, Post Graduate Institute of Medical Education and Research (PGIMER) has finally decided to resume its out-patient department (OPD) services from November 2 onwards. However, all patients will first be evaluated through tele-consultation and only those requiring physical examination will be called to the hospital through the appointment system.
The OPD services at the institute have been lying shut since March 20, when coronavirus hit the city. From May 19, tele-consultation services were started at PGIMER and around 2,100 patients are being seen every day. Before the Covid pandemic, nearly 10,000 patients visited the OPDs daily.
In a statement issued here, PGIMER said, “The tele-consultation services will continue considering its dual benefit to the patients and the institute.”
It said that the tele-consultation will act as the ‘point of setting up physical appointments in the OPDs’. The timings of registration for tele-consultation will be from 8am to 9.30am from November 2.
The OPDs would function as per the existing schedule and the focus would be on limiting the number of patients, the institute said. The patients evaluated through tele-consultation and requiring physical examination will be called to PGIMER by appointment system.
“All the departments will write date of appointment on the tele-consultation OPD cards of the patients to be called in physically and have the same sent over to the medical record officer of the respective centres,” the statement added.
The medical record department will schedule the appointments as per recommendations of the department in hourly slots and intimation about the same will be sent automatically as SMS on the registered mobile numbers of the patients, PGIMER said.
The departments of general surgery, internal medicine, paediatric medicine, obstetrics, gynaecology and ophthalmology would be running daily OPDs.
Patients to be screened in holding area
To ensure adequate physical distancing, only 50 patients would be seen at each OPD.
“This number will be suitably increased/decreased as the Covid situation unfolds. Walk-ins without prior appointment will be dealt with only through tele-consultation during this phase,” the institute said.
A holding area will be created in the parking area outside the OPD, where patients will wait. After screening, they would be sent to the OPD concerned. The department of community medicine has been entrusted with the task to initiate a screening system for patients who would be called in for physical check-ups.
Meanwhile, UT administrator VP Singh Badnore has directed the PGIMER authorities to start tele-consultation over video to avoid crowding at the OPDs. The instructions were issued during the war-room meeting of the administration on Monday.
How to visit OPDs
Register for tele-consultation. Helpline numbers are available on PGIMER’s website
Those requiring physical examination will get an SMS from the institute about the OPD appointment with the date and hour slot
Visiting patients will first wait in the holding area outside the OPD
They will be screened and directed to the OPD concerned as per the slots
