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PGIMER: No appointment slots for a week at most OPDs
At the internal medicine department of the PGIMER, which sees the highest footfall, all online appointment slots have been booked for the entire month
In just four days after the Post Graduate Institute of Medical Education and Research (PGIMER) resumed the online appointment facility for its out-patient departments (OPDs), slots in most of the departments have been booked for this week.
Walk-in consultations continue to remain suspended. Patients can also get an appointment after tele-consultation, but only if the doctor thinks it is required.
Till at least September 13, no appointment slot is available at the general surgery; dermatology, venereology and leprology; ophthalmology (eye); orthopaedics, otolaryngology —head and neck surgery, and urology departments.
At the internal medicine department, which sees the highest footfall, all slots have been booked for the entire month. However, patients can book a slot to consult doctors at gynaecology, obstetrics, oral health sciences (dental), paediatric surgery and plastic surgery departments this week.
Online appointments and walk-in consultations were suspended in March last year after the Covid pandemic broke out. Since then, the institute had been providing OPD services through tele-consultation. From June 21 this year, physical consultations were resumed, but only after prior appointment through tele-consultation.
On September 1, the online appointment facility was also resumed, but with a cap of 30 patients per department per day. Patients can book slots for only the next 30 dates.
‘Cap of 30 patients too low’
Before the contagion, over 10,000 patients visited OPDs at the PGIMER daily. But now, only 2,000- 2,500 are being called per day.
“On September 3, I tried getting OPD appointment at the orthopaedics department, but could get dates only after September 10. The patients are not able to get immediate dates for consultation and tele-consultation is of no help”, said Varinder Kaur, a resident of Punjab.
Rajvinder Singh, a patient from Chandigarh, said: “I wanted to consult doctors at the general medicine department, but no slot is available for booking. Now, I am trying hard to book an appointment through tele-consultation but the phones do not connect easily. The authorities should increase the cap of 30 as it is too low.”
“We have put a cap on the number of patients to avoid crowding, as it can further spread Covid-19 infection and invite the third wave,” said PGIMER director Dr Jagat Ram. “We know hundreds of patients try to call doctors for tele-consultation at a time and only a few are able to connect, but we have no other option than to open OPDs in a phased manner.”
