Outstation AIIMS patients in two minds: To stay, or leave?
We plan to resume OPD services sometime next week, but the date is to be decided. Most manpower has been dedicated to Covid care.
DR DK SHARMA, medical superintendent, AIIMS
NEWDELHI: With little clarity from the All India Institute of Medical Sciences (AIIMS) on when the hospital will resume regular services at its outpatient department (OPD), more than 500 patients and their attendants who had travelled to the Capital for treatment at the premier institute remain unsure of what they should do next.
The AIIMS administration had, in the second week of May, said they were planning to resume OPD services in phases, but there has been no confirmation from the officials on the specific date.
The hospital had shut all its non-emergency departments, including surgical departments and specialty clinics on March 24, a day before the nationwide lockdown came into effect, and kept only its emergency services open for non-Covid patients.
WILL WAIT TILL MONDAY, SAY PATIENTS
Indrajeet Kumar, 25, a resident of Bihar’s Sitamarhi district who travelled to the Capital to get his father treated in early March, said they are waiting till Monday to see if OPD services resume. He said they would return home if the services stay shut.
“My father was being treated at the neurology department for a bone infection. He has high bloodsugar levels. Now, we are running out of money,” he said.
He said he is not able to record his father’s blood sugar levels on a daily basis because the test strips cost between ₹700-1,000, which he can no longer afford.
Dr DK Sharma, medical superintendent, AIIMS, said , “We plan to resume OPD services in several departments sometime next week, but the date is to be decided. We are trying to see which departments can be resumed in, as most of manpower has so far been dedicated to Covid care.”
Most of the 500 people used to camp on pavements or in tents outside the hospital, the government shifted most of them to shelter homes across the city soon on May 3. A few, however, continue to sleep in the lawns at the AIIMS roundabout.
UNENDING WAIT FOR PATIENTS CAMPED
According to Society for the Promotion of Youth and Masses (SPYM), an NGO that runs three of the Delhi government’s shelter homes here, most of the around 1,200 families that had been camping outside the hospital have left for their home towns — some after being given new dates for their treatments, others who decided to come back once the lockdown ends.
For many, the wait has been unending. BP Mathur, came to Delhi from Lucknow in February for his 20-year-old son’s heart surgery. The doctor was supposed to give him a date for the procedure on March 24. “I will wait till next week to get the date, so that we at least know when to return,” Mathur said.