In a step towards offering health care to all 24x7, the city’s Safdarjung hospital will run its out-patient department (OPD) for 12 hours a day under a Union ministry of health pilot project, becoming India’s first government hospital to do so.
Under the project, OPDs for key departments, including medicine, gynaecology, paediatrics, and general surgery, will run from 8am to 8pm.
Generally, OPDs at most government hospitals run for five hours, between 8am and 1pm, with special afternoon clinics for ailments such as like diabetes and heart disease a few days a week. Close to 8,000 patients visit the out-patient clinics every day at Safdarjung Hospital that currently run from 8am to 4pm.
“This much-needed move will help people who are unable to visit the hospital during the regular OPD hours because of tight work schedules,” said Dr Sanjiv Kumar, director, International Institute of Health Management and Research at Delhi.
Read more of this in a report by Anonna Dutt published in Hindustan Times....
(Government hospitals elsewhere should also follow this. It will greatly help the poor, specially the working class. - Editor)
