Jipmer said it was resuming hospital visits for select patients on Friday as part of a clear roadmap it had evolved to expand outpatient services.
Jipmer Director Rakesh Aggarwal said the institution’s status as a tertiary-level institution and a designated COVID-19 hospital, laid emphasis on beginning advanced facilities which were not available elsewhere.
However, to ensure safety, this needs to be done gradually as the institution has been carrying out emergency services uninterrupted. A sudden and complete reopening of outpatient departments (OPDs) will lead to several thousand patients and relatives visiting the hospital every day, with overcrowding and a real risk of transmission of COVID-19 in the OPDs, pharmacies and sample collection areas, Dr. Aggarwal said.
Also, with large crowds, it would be impossible to ensure social distancing norms in these areas. This risk was particularly high since the neighbouring districts are red zones for COVID-19 and have seen a major increase in new cases in the last few days. There was also the added risk of having to quarantine a large number of healthcare workers, with disruption of work in the hospital.
Since April 22, Jipmer has been providing consultation services to outpatients over telephone. More recently, video-consultation was added. Every day, over 200 patients avail these services.
From Friday, Jipmer will start in-person outpatient services by appointment for selected patients.
For the time being, only patients with such an appointment would be able to be seen in the OPD once they have registered on 0413-2298200. Jipmer will send the appointment date and time for telephone and video consultation through text messages to the patients. After the telephone consultation, selected patients would be asked to come for in-person consultation.
On arrival, such patients (and one attendant each) will undergo an initial clinical screening, and directed to the respective outpatient department. Only one attender was allowed with each patient, and masks are mandatory for both. Patients are advised to follow travel restrictions imposed by the government.
Jipmer was also making arrangements for starting distribution of drugs for patients with chronic diseases, who were already on treatment from Jipmer for a long time. It was also coordinating with health authorities in Puducherry and Tamil Nadu to arrange for consultations, prescriptions and drugs for patients who were previously visiting the Institute.