KAKINADA: Lack of adequate number of computers in the outpatient wing of the Government General Hospital (GGH) in the city has resulted in inordinate delay in issuance of OP tickets. As a result, patients visiting the district headquarters hospital from various parts of East Godavari and neighbouring West Godavari and Visakhapatnam are facing severe hardship.
As the GGH comes under the purview of Ayushman Bharat now, computer generated OP tickets need to be issued to outpatients. On an average, 3,500 to 4,000 patients visit the GGH a day. Of them, about 250 need to be admitted as inpatients.The three computers in the outpatient wing are highly inadequate to meet the patient rush. Consequently, patients are forced to stand in queues for longer time.
Data entry operators in the OP wing need to feed additional information such as Aadhaar card and contact phone numbers of patients, in addition to the name, age, gender, health problem and consultancy wing for computer generated OP tickets, consuming more time. If patients fail to get OP tickets within the stipulated time, they need to visit the GGH the next day, along with their attendants, incurring additional expenses. Hence, large crowds at the outpatient wing have become a common sight.
When contacted by TNIE, Kakinada GGH Superintendent Dr Venkata Buddha said, “The entire process of issuing OP tickets at the hospital has been computerised under the Ayushman Bharat Digital Mission. It will take sometime to streamline the system.”
Hosp to get computers soon
“We are expecting to get more computers soon from the APMIDC. Once the system is streamlined, patients need not wait for long hours in queue to get OP tickets,” said GGH chief Dr Buddha