CHENNAI: The Greater Chennai Corporation's 2023 digital initiative, the QR code feedback system, has gradually vanished from the face of the city, leaving citizens unable to report issues at urban healthcare centres.
Launched two years ago with much fanfare, the Corporation installed QR codes at over 1,000 locations, including Urban Primary Health Centres (UPHC), Urban Community Health Centres (UCHC), and parks. The system was designed to enable residents and patients to easily register complaints regarding services, medicine shortages, or staff behaviour.
However, a ground report in 2026 reveals a starkly different picture. The QR codes have either vanished from these facilities or are no longer functional.
At the Saidapet UPHC on West Jones Road, DT Next found the QR code still affixed but entirely useless. Upon scanning, the link led to an error stating "page not found". Staff and doctors at the centre confirmed the codes were present only for the sake of it and are no longer operational.
This technical failure directly impacts patient care. Raj Kumar, a resident who visits the Saidapet UPHC every two weeks with his grandmother, expressed his frustration. "I have scanned the code multiple times to report the shortage of specific medicines, but the page never loads," he said.
The situation is worse at other locations. At the UPHCs in Thousand Lights West and on Cudappa Rangaiah Street in Periamet, as well as the Urban Health and Wellness Centre (UHWC) on Khana Bagh Street in Triplicane, the codes have been completely removed. While staff at the Khana Bagh centre attributed the removal to recent renovation work, workers and nurses at the Periamet UPHC claimed they had never seen such codes on the premises at all.
Residents argue that if maintained properly, the system can be a valuable tool for civic accountability. "It would be so helpful for us to directly flag issues like medicine shortages or insufficient staff at our local UPHC," said R Senthil, a resident of CIT Nagar.
The initiative was introduced a long time ago; we haven't checked back. The server might be down, which is why the site can’t be reached. We will inform the officials to rectify the issue.Responding to the findings, a senior Corporation official admitted to a lack of oversight