AIIMS Bhubaneswar shuts down OPD unit from Friday
BHUBANESWAR: The AIIMS Bhubaneswar on Thursday decided to close its walk-in OPD (out-patient department) from Friday until further notice. Patients can avail themselves of telemedicine facility or use the app created by the hospital for doctor consultation.
Gitanjali Batmanabane, director of AIIMS Bhubaneswar, said the decision to shut the OPD was taken after a number of Covid cases were reported from among patients and hospital staff in the past 10 days. “Many of our staff live in containment zones and they cannot come to the hospital. Some medical staff are under isolation as well. Keeping this in mind, we have stopped our OPD services,” she added.
Sources said 31 hospital staff, including 10 doctors and 10 nurses, have been infected with Covid-19. Of them, seven have recovered from the disease. Around 60 patients undergoing treatment in the hospital have also tested positive for Covid-19. As many as 243 hospital staff are in isolation.
The primary Covid case in the hospital was a patient in the respiratory ICU who died last week. The patient was checked for Covid before his body was to be released, and he tested positive for the disease.
The director said indoor patient department (IPD) services and trauma and emergency services would continue as usual. Daycare services, radiotherapy, dialysis, emergency and lifesaving surgery, telemedicine and tele-consultation services would also continue, she added.
From March 19 to July 6, the institution offered OPD services to 85,235 patients, emergency services to 7,727 patients, essential and emergency life-saving surgeries to 3,027 patients and admitted 4,481 IPD patients. It also treated 330 patients suffering from severe acute respiratory illness (SARI). It is conducting Covid-19 tests on around 500 samples a day and treating Covid patients as well.
The hospital’s app ‘AIIMS Bhubaneswar Swasthya’, which was launched on Thursday, provides online consultation. Patients can register their names and details on the app and consult a doctor of their choice. Patients can also upload documents on the app. The app can be downloaded from Google Play store. It will start working from Friday, the institution said.