Safdarjung hospital starts Sunday clinic for senior citizens

This week onwards, Safdarjung hospital that treats over 7,000 people in its OPD clinic every day will now provide consultations to the elderly every Sunday between 9.30am and 12.30pm with doctors from general medicine, general surgery, orthopaedics, ENT and ophthalmology.

People over 60 years of age will now be able to walk into Safdarjung Hospital on Sundays for consultation with doctors from five different specialties at the new geriatric out-patient department (OPD).

The Geriatric OPD was planned to ensure the old do not have to stand in queues for hours, and have easier access to healthcare services. (Photo: Sonu Mehta/ HT file photo)

This week onwards, the hospital that treats over 7,000 people in its OPD clinic every day will now provide consultations to the elderly every Sunday between 9.30am and 12.30pm with doctors from general medicine, general surgery, orthopaedics, ENT and ophthalmology.

The Geriatric OPD was planned to ensure the old do not have to stand in queues for hours, and have easier access to healthcare services.

“There is so much rush in this hospital during the routine OPDs that it becomes difficult for the old people to stand in the queues. We had received feedback that this was a problem. So, we decided to start a special clinic for three hours on Sundays,” Safdarjung medical superintendent Dr Sunil Gupta said.

The hospital pharmacy will also be open between 09.30am and 01.00pm to ensure that patients can get their medicines the same day.

Usually, the pharmacy, the radiological department and the laboratories remain shut on Sundays in all government hospitals. On Sunday, tests are only done in the emergency department and the wards.

“We expect more and more people to come for the (Sunday) clinic as they come to know about it. Initially, we may see about 40 to 50 patients,” Dr Gupta said.

The Sunday clinic is an added bonus for the doctors from the department of community medicine at the hospital. “We run three geriatric clinics in the peripheral areas of Delhi—Najafgarh, Fatehpur Beri and Aliganj. Although the general health issues can be addressed at these clinics itself, for specialist consultation we can now refer the patient to the Sunday clinics,” Dr Jugal Kishore, head of the department of community medicine at the hospital, said.