Hospitals reopen OPDs as Covid-19 graph dips in Delhi

With the ebb in Covid-19 cases, hospitals in the Capital are looking to restart routine services such as outpatient clinics and planned surgeries, which have been off the table for nearly two months.

The All India Institute of Medical Sciences (AIIMS) will restart outpatient clinics and routine surgeries and admissions from Friday, said senior hospital officials.

“In view of the decreased need to hospitalise Covid-19 patients and considering the relaxation of the lockdown norms, it has been decided that routine inpatient admissions, including elective surgeries in general and private wards in AIIMS and all its centres, be resumed with immediate effect,” said an order issued by Dr DK Sharma, medical superintendent of the institute.

Around 100 Covid-19 patients are currently being treated in the hospital, which has around 370 beds reserved for patients with the viral infection.

While outpatient clinics will be open for new and follow-up patients, no walk-ins will be allowed for now. “However, any patient, whether undergoing treatment at the hospital or visiting for the first-time will be allowed after an appointment,” said a senior official from the hospital administration.

These services are being restarted after nearly two months, since they were stopped in the last week of April as Covid-19 cases started soaring.

The Delhi government-run Lok Nayak hospital, which also has around 100 Covid-19 patients admitted, is looking to restart non-Covid services. “We are preparing, and services will resume as soon as we get an order from the government,” said a senior doctor at the hospital.

The hospital began restricting the routine services from the first week of April, stopping it completely by the time a lockdown was announced in Delhi from April 19. The hospital, which has an extended facility at the Ramlila Maidan, is likely to use the temporary structure to treat Covid-19 patients, while the main hospital focusses on non-Covid-19 services.

Out-patient clinics at the Delhi government-run Rajiv Gandhi Superspeciality hospital were restarted this week, and in-patient admissions will also begin in a “couple of days,” said a senior hospital administrator.

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