Evening clinics set to launch in Telangana’s govt hospitals from Monday

Hyderabad: For the first time in Telangana, the concept of evening clinics is set to be launched in all general and maternity government hospitals from Monday onwards. From now on, patients can not only access health services during the morning session but also in the evenings. The outpatient services at government hospitals will be available […]

Hyderabad: For the first time in Telangana, the concept of evening clinics is set to be launched in all general and maternity government hospitals from Monday onwards.

From now on, patients can not only access health services during the morning session but also in the evenings. The outpatient services at government hospitals will be available from 9 am to 2 pm and later the evening OPs will run from 4 pm to 6 pm.

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To manage the workload, care givers from various categories including doctors, nurses, paramedical and non-clinical staff will be available in shifts. Healthcare workers who are available for evening clinics will be exempted from attending duties in the morning. To this effect, doctors and others scheduled for evening clinics can report to their duties form 1 pm in the afternoon.

At a meeting to hammer out the modalities to implement evening clinics initiative between Director of Medical Education (DME), Dr K Ramesh Reddy and Superintendents of teaching hospitals, it was also decided to implement the scheme in a phase-wise manner.

In the initial few days, a select few medical departments including general medicine, general surgery, paediatrics, gynaecology and orthopaedic wings, which usually draw the maximum load of patients in the outpatient wing, will be available for evening clinics. It was also decided to strictly implement biometric attendance recording system at all the general and maternity hospitals to ensure prompt and timely healthcare services are available to patients.

Dr Reddy urged patients to note that the process of issuing outpatient tokens at all the government hospitals will start from 7.30 am. He urged government doctors who are manning the morning OPs to ensure they are available for consultation from 9 am during all working hours.

“The system of evening OPs will be very useful for patients. In the morning session, they will consult a doctor and get their diagnostic tests done at the hospital. The diagnostic laboratory will complete the tests and release them to the patient in a few hours. The patient can collect the laboratory tests and meet the doctor again in the evening for final treatment prescription,” Dr Reddy said.