Healthcare boost: UP government mulls two six-hour OPD shifts in hospitals

LUCKNOW: Patients can now hope for better healthcare as the Yogi Adityanath government is planning to run out patient department (OPD) services in two sixhour shifts in all government hospitals, community health centres (CHCs) and primary health centres (PHCs) in the state. Sharing the information in the assembly on Monday, health minister Sidharth Nath Singh said the government would soon bring a proposal to this effect in cabinet.
The OPD timings are from 8am to 2pm now. If the
government goes ahead with the proposal, another shift of OPD would run from 2pm to 8pm.
The minister was responding to a joint query raised by BSP’s deputy legislative party leader Uma Shankar Singh and Congress MLA Aditi Singh, seeking to know if the government had any plans to extend OPD timings considering the rise in number of patients and rush in hospitals.
Singh said the government was aware of the problems and was considering a proposal to extend OPD timings by another six hours. “A proposal would soon be brought in the cabinet,” Singh said. He added that the state still faces a shortage of over 2,300 doctors in district hospitals, CHCs and PHCs.
SP MLA Manoj Pandey asked how many CHCs and PHCs had been constructed but were non-functional and sought to know if the government planned to make them functional in a time-bound manner. Pandey said that patients were falling prey to quacks due to shortage of doctors in government hospitals. He said around 700 people have lost their lives since 2016 after getting treated by quacks.
Replying to the query, Singh said 18 CHCs and 10 PHCs were non-functional due to lack of doctors and paramedical staff. He said the government has made 52 PHCs and 47 CHCs functional since coming to power in 2017.