COIMBATORE:Patients at the Coimbatore Medical College Hospital (CMCH) can heave a sigh of relief as the hospital is planning to open five new counters to provide Outpatient (OP) tickets in a couple of days, in addition to the existing three counters, in its bid to avoid patients standing in long queues for hours together to get the tickets.
The work is almost complete, with only a few finishing touches to be carried out.
“Our plan is to issue only new OP tickets from the new counters and allow renewal of existing OP tickets from the existing counters. This will ensure that patients don’t have to queue for hours to get their OP tickets,” said A Edwin Joe, Dean of CMCH.
According to information provided by the CMCH officials, approximately 6,000 outpatients visit CMCH daily and they have to depend upon the three counters available for getting new OP tickets as well as renewing existing ones. Managing 6,000 cases with only three OP counters is a herculean task for the staff and also a painful experience for the patients. One can witness long queues of patients on all days except Sunday at the hospital.
“There have been instances of people collapsing after waiting in queues for hours. Most of the patients who come here may not be healthy enough to stand in queues for an extended period of time. CMCH should open some more counters to fix this mess,” said Janaki Ammal, a patient.