Now, book online appointments at AIIMS under ‘Tatkal’ scheme

Now you can book appointments online for the same day against cancellations at the All India Institute of Medical Sciences (AIIMS) under its ‘Tatkal’ (instant) scheme.

Now you can book appointments online for the same day against cancellations and no-shows at the All India Institute of Medical Sciences (AIIMS) under its recently-launched ‘Tatkal’ (instant) scheme.

File photo of All India Institute of Medical Sciences in Delhi. (Mohd Zakir/ HT Photo)

The Tatkal booking has a window period of about an hour from 10am onwards, during which people can log in to www.ors.gov.in to check for availability of time slots with the doctor of their choice.

There is no charge for the Aadhaar-based online registration and appointment system.

“It is like the airport check-in counter where you can confirm who all are boarding the flight positively and try to accommodate people in place of the no-shows,” said Dr Deepak Agrawal, additional professor, neurosurgery, AIIMS. The Tatkal booking system became operational a fortnight ago.

Since the online registration started at the hospital as part of the government’s Digital India initiative in July, more than 60,000 appointments have been made.

Data since July shows that as many as half of those who book online don’t turn up for appointments. “People often book appointments online but do not show up for whatever reasons. Since patients almost never call to cancel an appointment, our call centre follows up with them and compiles a list of no-shows. These free time-slots are then opened up for people for the day,” he said.

The initiative is part of the Online Registration System, a framework to link various hospitals across India for Aadhaar-based online registration and appointment system, where counter based OPD registration and appointment system through Hospital Management Information System (HMIS) has been digitalised.

“We are just ensuring that no OPD slot goes waste as a high volume hospital like ours can’t afford it, and also the method is helping in streamlining the registration process. We want to dissuade people from walking into the OPDs and this is the best way to check such crowd,” said Dr Agrawal.

The hospital gets nearly 10,000 cases in its OPDs each day. However, on the flip side, this facility can be availed by only a select section of people that is net savvy.

“Given the increase in online accessibility, the number of those availing online bookings is fairly large,” he added.