OPD services resume in state’s govt hospitals
DHANBAD: Services of outdoor patient department (OPD) resumed in medical colleges and government hospitals across the state on Thursday, 63 days after they were closed in the wake of the coronavirus pandemic, officials said.
State health secretary Dr Nitin Kulkarni, in this regard, directed superintendents of all six medical colleges and civil surgeons (CS) of all 24 districts to restart OPD services for general patients in the hospitals.
The state government had suspended OPD services in hospitals across the state on March 26.
“For dedicated treatment of Covid-19 patients, OPD services were suspended. However, as per the directive of the Government of India, all health services have been resumed. OPD services need to be resumed for treatment of all types of patients while maintaining social distancing,” Kulkarni said in his letter issued to health officials on Wednesday.
Due to suspension of OPD services, poor patients in the state had been facing hardship for the last two months to avail treatment for general ailments. For catering to the requirement, the state government had started telemedicine and e-sanjeevani OPD services to provide medical advice through video conferencing and WhatsApp.
‘E-SANJEEVANI OPD WILL CONTINUE TO RUN’
Despite resumption of OPD services in the state, e-sanjeevani OPD would continue to run to provide medical assistance to the needy, said Kulkarni.
For providing health services to people during lockdown, the health department had launched e-sanjeevani OPD on May 1.
People were able to avail medical advice and prescription through video conferencing or WhatsApp from 40 experts of the health department.
State nodal officer of e-sanjeevani OPD, Dr Lalit Ranjan Pathak, said, “Medicines will also be delivered to people based on e-prescription”, he said.