With rising patients’ footfall, SMS Hosp to add more hours in daily OPD timing, add counters & staff

Jaipur: With increase in registration, SMS Hospital will strengthen OPD services in high-load departments to reduce crowding and improve patient care. In the first phase, the medicine department will run an evening OPD from 5-7pm. Earlier too, the SMS hospital had started the evening OPD at emergency department to decongest emergency unit in evening, but this time, the SMS hospital will establish OPDs at Dhanwantri block, where the doctors provide daily OPDs services to the patients.

Currently, the OPD timing is 8am to 2pm. The new arrangements of evening OPD will be made for the summer season. , after which decision for its extension will be taken later on., said a SMS hospital official.

During an inspection Thursday, principal secretary (medical education) Gayatri Rathore directed hospital officials to make immediate arrangements so that patients do not face long waits or treatment delays.

When she inspected the hospital, she noticed the OPD was overflowing with patients, every bench occupied and many more standing shoulder to shoulder in the corridors, while at the blood sample collection centre a long, slow-moving queue stretched far beyond the counter, reflecting the strain on the hospital’s services.

Rathore expressed concern over the situation and directed the hospital authorities to take immediate steps to make treatment more accessible, improve patient flow, and ensure that essential services were delivered more efficiently.

She said SMS Hospital handles a heavy patient load as one of the country’s largest and most prominent hospitals, but patient convenience must remain a priority.

Rathore reviewed facilities in the Cardiology, Medicine and Orthopaedics departments at Dhanvantari OPD. She instructed that departments facing very high patient footfall should consider evening OPD as an alternative arrangement so patients do not have to remain at the hospital for long hours. She said the evening Medicine OPD will have adequate staff, including senior doctors. If the system works well, similar services may later be introduced in other departments.

The Principal Secretary also ordered an increase in medicine distribution counters. She directed that four to five new counters be opened immediately in view of the patient load. She further asked officials to ensure full availability of medicines listed under the essential medicines list. Medicines not available through regular supply should be procured as per rules and made available without delay.
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