No takers for online OPD booking

Over a week after the Delhi government launched an online OPD registration system at 24 government hospitals, most hospitals have seen none or a slim number of online bookings.

Lok Nayak Hospital (LNJP) saw the first two such bookings on Wednesday.

 “This is mainly because people would take some time to know that such a system is available for use. Also, a major chunk of patients are probably not internet savvy, a reason why this service might take longer to pick up pace,” said Siddharth Ramji, medical superintendent LNJP.

The system, which aims to ease the waiting time of patients at hospitals, currently allows 100 online bookings per department every day.

“After a month, we may do away with the initial cap of 100 bookings to make the service more patient friendly,” said Dr N V Kamat, Director of Health Services (DHS).

Deen Dayal Upadhyay (DDU) and Lal Bahadur Shastri Hospital are yet to receive any online bookings.

Sources in Guru Teg Bahadur Hospital (GTB) said patients were seen queuing up in large numbers as usual without any knowledge of online booking available.

“It has only been a few days since the system has been implemented. I think it will be possible to understand the response only by the end of the month,” said Dr Amita Saxena, medical superintendent of Lal Bahadur Shastri.

DDU medical superintendent Bharat Singh Mehta said the hospital had received no patients through the online registration either.

“First the patients have to be educated on the availability of such a service. Following this, we might have a better response.”

Meanwhile, DDU is set to get its first paediatric medical emergency department on the ground floor soon to start providing enhanced child-care facilities.

“Children who needed critical medical attention had to be shifted to the wards till now. With the emergency department coming up right near the entrance, we can treat disaster cases immediately,” said Mehta.

More docs in hospitals

To deal with the shortage of doctors and fill up existing vacant posts, around 1,000 doctors will be appointed across government hospitals by the end of this week.

Moreover, 70 medical officers will be inducted across hospitals to fill the vacant positions.
“Around 700 doctors will join hospitals by the end of this week. We have already got a chunk of them in some of these hospitals. Besides, 70 medical officers will be appointed,” said Dr Kamat.

This is mainly to fill up the posts created over the last few years.

The process took long as these doctors are appointed after they clear entrance exams,” he further added in his statement.