Chandigarh: Only two PGI depts offering online appointments for follow-up patients

Only two departments at PGIMER are providing priority consultation to follow-up patients through an online portal, thereby reducing waiting time, while rest have yet to adopt it, leaving patientshassled.

Through the online system, the Advanced Eye Centre (AEC) has been offering consultation to follow-up patients with precise date and time, followed by hepatology department that is providing appointments through a digital booking system to reduce long time in queues and ease patient movement.

Around 8,000-10,000 patients visit the OPDs at PGIMER daily. The maximum rush is seen between 8 am-11 am, which is the registration time.

The institute had introduced an online registration system in 2015 to save patients from standing in long queues for registration. However, the online facility only works as a pre-registration service.

After registering online, the patient still has to get the OPD card from a counter. There is no online appointment for a specific consultant/unit available.

At AEC, the process of patient record keeping was shifted online in 2022 and ever since, the centre has been able to ease patient rush at OPD.

“Daily, around 1,400 patients visit the AEC OPD and out of these 450 are new patients,” said Dr SS Pandav, head of ophthalmology department.

Patients being called for follow-ups are given date and time according to the free slots, allowing proper footfall management.

The hepatology department introduced the online appointment booking system for its liver clinic follow-up patients in January 2025. From January 10 to March 24, 782 patients have booked appointments online and were seen on priority basis.

PGIMER had announced the upgrade of its current Hospital Information System (HIS) 1.0 to 2.0 in 2022.

However, there has been no progress. With HIS 2.0, departments will be able to maintain medical records electronically. An app also remains a far-fetched dream until HIS is not upgraded to 2.0.