Project to install digital boards at Civil Hospital in limbo

Tribune News Service

Bathinda, January 22

The project to install digital display boards at the Civil Hospital has been hanging in the balance for over one year. Notably, to provide hassle-free services at the Civil Hospital, including the general OPD, the district Health Department authorities had proposed to introduce digital display boards in June 2017.

The issue of chaos at the medicine OPD owing to congested space and faulty architecture was highlighted in these columns on numerous occasions in the past, but to no avail.

In 2017, the Civil Hospital authorities had stated that for the convenience of doctors and patients, digital display boards would be installed to facilitate hassle-free services at the general OPD.

The Senior Medical Officer, Civil Hospital, had said they were ready to install digital boards in a phased manner. He had added that boards would be installed at the general OPD and at the Women and Children Hospital on a trial basis. The SMO had said after seeing the response for a few weeks and making necessary changes, these boards would be installed in other units in the next phase.

Surprisingly, more than 18 months have passed since the announcement, these boards are to be installed for the reasons best known to the authorities concerned.

With lack of adequate space to accommodate patients and their family members, the medicine OPD witnesses chaos during the peak hours when scores of patients (even those whose turn for examination is late) block the main entrance of the OPD.

Sources said apart from Health Department’s apathy, conundrum at the OPD during peak hours could be attributed to irresponsible behaviour of patients who unaware of their turn block the main entrance. In such a scenario, digital display boards would be handy as patients would not stand near the doors of clinics or at the main entrance when their token or receipt number would be displayed on the screen.

On an average, more than 350 patients get examined in the medicine OPD on a daily basis. Patients, on the other hand, alleged that doctors do not come on time, leading to chaos outside the OPD.

Dr Satish Goyal, Senior Medical Officer, Civil Hospital, said, “We had installed digital display boards at the Women and Children Hospital. But, it had developed some snag. We could not install boards in others parts of the hospital. Now, we will try to install these boards during the ongoing renovation work.”