CHENNAI: Health secretary Gagandeep Singh Bedi on Wednesday writes to all district collectors on outpatient timings and the presence of medical staff in the hospitals.
The higher authorities of the government hospitals should ensure that the doctors and staff follow the timings strictly.
“Timely commencement of the outpatient (OP) services in all the government medical college hospitals, government hospitals, government primary health centers, and dispensaries are much critical and very important to avoid any undue delays to avail the health services, especially at the time of need. So, the deans, joint director of medical services, and deputy director of health services should strictly adhere to the outpatient timings as per the instructions,” stated Bedi.
The doctors and staff in charge of OP at the government medical college and hospitals during the admission day of the concerned department should be there from 7.30 am to 12 noon, they should oversee the 24-hour admission in inpatient wards too.
The resident medical officer reports at 7 am must supervise OP and arrangements. Also, the medical superintendent should be present at 8 am, and ensure they are available round the clock on an emergency basis.
“Similarly, for the staff and doctors at government headquarter hospital and other government hospitals, the general OP timings are from 7.30 am to 12 noon. The 24-hour duty doctors should attend the evening OP from 3 pm to 5 pm. The timing for the dentists and physiotherapists for OP are 8 am to 1 pm and 3 pm to 5 pm. For the chief medical officers (administrations) they should work from 7.30 am to 1 pm, and for the evening shift would be same as others,” the letter noted.
The medical officers at government primary health centers should be available from 9 am to 4 pm those primary health centers have 1 to 3 medical officers. If there are five officers, then the timings for two medical officers are from 8 am to 2 pm for the OP service. And one medical officer should be present from 2 pm to 8 am.