Tribune News Service
Chandigarh, October 26
The Post Graduate Institute of Medical Education and Research (PGIMER), Chandigarh, has finally decided to resume physical OPDs in a limited format from November 2.
With a view to ensure adequate physical distancing, a fixed number of 50 patients will be seen in each OPD, the institute said here on Monday. However, the number of patients visiting OPDs will be suitably increased/decreased as the COVID-19 situation unfolds, it added.
The institute has also decided that all walk-in patients who come to OPDs without prior appointment would be dealt through tele-consultation only, during this phase.
The departments, which are running special clinics and general OPDs, will decide on the number of patients to be seen, said one of the premier health institutions of the country.
The registration for tele-consultation will be done between 8 am and 9.30 am.
Departments of General Surgery, Internal Medicine, Paediatric Medicine, Obstetrics and Gynaecology, and Ophthalmology will conduct daily OPDs, it said.
The OPD will function as per the existing schedule and the focus will be on limiting the number of patients in the OPD and crowd control.
It was further decided that tele-consultation services would continue and it would also act as the point of setting up physical appointments in the OPDs, the institute said, adding, the patients evaluated through tele consultation and requiring physical examination would be called to the PGIMER by appointment system.
All departments providing tele-consultation will write date of appointment on the tele-consultation OPD cards of the patients to be called in physically.
The appointments will be scheduled as per recommendations of the department in hourly slots and intimation about the same will be sent automatically as SMS on the registered mobile number of the patient, the institute informed.
A decision was also taken to provide suitable PPE kits to various cadres of healthcare workers in the OPDs for the second phase.
The Department of Community Medicine has been entrusted with the responsibility to initiate a screening system for patients who would be called physically to the OPDs, it said.
Meanwhile, the engineering section has been requested to complete any pending work in the newly-prepared holding area for patients and all the departments were requested to flag to the concerned if any infrastructural modifications are required in their particular OPD areas.
A meeting with the security wing of the PGI would be arranged to consider crowd control.
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