COVID-19: AIIMS to resume OPD services for follow-up patients from June 25

NEW DELHI: After a gap of three months, the All India Institute of Medical Sciences will be resuming outpatient department (OPD) services in phased manner starting from June 25 with a maximum 15 patients a day.

“Apropos decision of Director, AIIMS to restart physical OPD services from June 25, it is informed that the Director, AIIMS has approved the resumption of physical appointments for old/follow up patients, not to exceed 15/day for any department initially, which will be enhanced in a few days,” read the order issued by Dr DK Sharma, AIIMS Medical Superintendent.

“In addition, requisite appointments for limited number of new patients will also be given for those departments who wish to start physical OPD consultation for a limited number of new OPD patients. However, no appointments will be given for evening specialty clinics in first phase of OPD reopening,” the letter stated.

While emergency services have been kept open throughout the period, AIIMS was operating OPD services only via tele-consultation during the lockdown. The administration claimed to have provided 61,000 tele-consultations to follow-up patients in these three months.

“All heads of clinical departments in AIIMS hospital are requested to intimate the following information — date of resumption of physical OPDs for patients of the department concerned and daily list of patients along with their telephone numbers, who have been given appointment for physical consultation,” the order said.

But even as doctors are gearing up to be back to their daily routine, they voiced concern over the safety of patients and themselves.

“The OPD building is very congested. Although the count of visitors has been restricted, maintaining physical distancing is going to be a challenge. Even we don’t want the patients to suffer but this can be a risky step,” said a senior doctor from the cancer department. Another senior doctor from the surgery department said the doctors have requested the administration to come up with a temporary set-up in the open instead of the closed-door OPD to avoid any infection.

“Going by the nature of this virus, staying long hours inside rooms is not a wise decision. If anyone gets infected, be it HCWs or the patients, it is risky for all. And the cases will continue to increase,” the doctor said. So far, around 1,000 AIIMS healthcare workers along with their family members have been infected by Covid-19.