The long queues of patients at the Out Patient Department (OPD) of Government hospitals in Delhi will be a thing of the past. In a major relief to thousands of patients, the Delhi Government on Tuesday inaugurated the online registration for OPD in 24 hospitals, including lok Nayak Hospital, GB Pant Hospital and GTB Hospital, among others. This will not only cut the crowd at the registration counters in the hospitals but also reduce the hassles of those who can not afford the online facility.

The online registration system inaugurated by the Chief Secretary of Delhi Government, SK Srivastava has been put into practice from Tuesday itself. Up to 100 registrations per speciality and per hospital will be allowed every day. The appointment can be fixed 15 days in advance. However, there will be no cap for revisits after one appointment. The online generated card will, however, not give privilege to any preferential treatments over OPD patients and it cannot be used for the purpose of medical leaves. 

“This is a conscious step to reduce the labour and sufferings of patients seeking OPD appointments. This online registration system will enable thousands of patients to seek appointments on a particular day and time that is convenient for them. This initiative will ease up the congestion in hospitals as well as it will save the precious time of our patients,” said SCl Das, Secretary of Health and Family Welfare of Delhi Government. 

According to officials, the new online registration is currently available on the website of the Health Department. For the first time users will have to register themselves by sharing all the mandatory details highlighted with a small red star on website. Once the registrations are done users have to carry the print of OPD Registration slip to the hospital on the day of appointment between 9.00 am and 12 noon in order to proceed directly to the selected specialty.

However, the department also unveiled couple of other initiatives such as e-office, Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) of Government of India with United Nations Development Programme (UNDP) and Standard Treatment Guidelines for 2014.

According to Jorn Sorensen, the country head of UNDP in India, around 50 doctors will be trained to enhance their professional skill and procurement service methods. These doctors will be taught by the international experts on how to manage procurement medicines, consumable and medical equipment with quality assurances and 100 per cent availability of drugs. At the end of the training, doctors will have to appear in the examination and the qualifying candidates would be awarded international certificate by UNDP.