AIIMS planning to start OPD and non-emergency surgeries soon; tells committee to prepare blueprint

An AIIMS sub-committee has been asked to prepare a blueprint for smooth restoration of OPD and non-emergency operation services, with the administration planning to resume them in the next ten days, official sources said.

Also, non-COVID services, other than emergency, for a limited time is likely to be predominantly referral only where the hospital will cater to only those patients who will be referred from peripheral hospitals, they said.

"This can curb the crowd inside the hospital premises to an extent but needs to come out with a well-thought plan considering the pros and cons," a source said. 

"The plan is to re-open OPD services in a phased manner. If the number of coronavirus cases surge in the near future and, if need be, we will switch back to the previous roster," an official said.

Doctors at AIIMS are currently providing tele-consultancy to all patients undergoing treatment at the hospital in an effort to reduce the need for them to visit the facility during the lockdown.

In a meeting held Tuesday morning to discuss strategies on restarting the OPD services, the chief of centres and heads of departments at AIIMS were asked to give an estimate of how many cases they can handle in a day if it has to be restarted.

The OT teams were also asked to finalise and draw a blueprint on how the non-emergency surgeries will be conducted keeping in view some operation theatres are reserved for suspected COVID-19 patients in the main OT area of the main hospital.

Its been over a month that the AIIMS has shut down its OPD services and curtailed all elective surgeries as part of its effort towards redirecting its resources to control the COVID-19 outbreak.

The premier hospital has also constituted a committee to devise strategy for restoring healthcare services in a phased manner.

"In due course, lockdown is likely to be rolled back and hospital services are needed to be restored in a phased manner with measures in place to avoid cross-infection and COVID-19 transmission," an memorandum issued to all chief of centres and heads of departments on April 25 said.

For the first time in its history, the All India Institute of Medical Sciences here shut down OPD services, including speciality and all new and follow-up registration from March 24.

The AIIMS had also issued a circular postponing all non-essential elective procedures and surgeries and directed for only emergency life-saving surgeries with effect from March 21.