India / Delhi AIIMS to resume OPD services after 3 months amid COVID-19

New Delhi: The outpatient department (OPD) services at All India Institute of Medical Science (AIIMS), New Delhi are all set to resume from June 25, after being shut for almost three months. The OPD services at the institute will initially begin with the follow-up patients and later will be extended to new cases.

“The date has been finalised in the meeting and the institute is soon going to issue a circular to all the departments. The OPD services will start for all the follow-up cases after providing the tele-consultation. All the departments be operational,” said a senior doctor from the hospital’s administration.

On March 18, the medical institute has sent an advisory to the OPD patients on their registered phone numbers, requesting them to postpone the OPD appointments. From March 20, the hospital curtained elective surgeries, and a screening area was developed for the patient having symptoms of respiratory tract infections.

The medical institute has already been providing tele-consultancy to all patients currently undergoing treatment at the hospital. Emergency services in the hospital are also operational to cater to crucial cases during the coronavirus-induced lockdown between March 25 and June 10. The institute has provided 61,000 tele-consultations to follow-up patients to reduce the need for them to visit the facility during the lockdown.

However, over 700 healthcare workers from the institute have been infected with the Covid-19 so far. According to the administration, around 75 per cent of them have joined back the duties.

The premier medical institute caters to over 15,000 patients in its OPD on a daily basis. In the absence of the OPD services, several patients have been running from pillar to post in search for treatment. For registration of patients, it has been advised that the patients visiting the new Rajkumari Amrit Kaur (RAK) OPD will continue to register in the new facility. However, old RAK OPD hall will be made available for new patient registration and the ground floor will be available for scanning of the OPD cards of the follow-up patients. The trauma emergency services will continue to function from the ground floor of old RAK OPD.

To ensure smooth functioning of the treatment of COVID-19 patients, the Jai Prakash Narayan Apex Trauma Center (JPNATC) was converted into a dedicated COVID hospital and the patients were shifted to the main campus.