The average number of patients seeking services at the outpatient department daily has surged to 1000 resulting in overcrowding.
Bengaluru: Technical difficulties in the online registration system of The National Institute of Mental Health and Neurosciences (NIMHANS) has resulted in overcrowding in its Outpatient Department (OPD). Patients cannot register online and therefore arrive directly at the hospital’s OPD block, adding to the number of people seeking appointments.
Gayatri, guardian of a patient from Bihar, said that she was unable to register online for an OPD appointment for her daughter. She also said that she and her mentally challenged daughter had to queue up early in the morning, at 4 a.m., and contend with overcrowding. Another patient, Shruta Bharati from West Bengal, suffering from chronic depression, faced similar challenges despite multiple attempts to register online. Additionally, some patients have reported their inability to obtain tokens for appointments despite waiting in the queue for extended periods.
Dr. Muralidharan K., the hospital superintendent said, “The institute is currently accommodating over a thousand OPD patients daily. This high patient load has resulted in patients facing distress and having to endure long queues, with some individuals arriving as early as 4 a.m. to seek medical attention.”
A physician at NIMHANS, said, “The crowd has been growing day by day, necessitating the postponement of patient appointments to the following month, resulting in delays in patient checkups.”
A nodal officer of NIMHANS said,” Due to a site crash, online registration is not functioning. The only solution is to obtain a physical appointment. Our team will work on this issue soon.”
Information Technology experts say that the problem could be solved by the systems management team. “At times, there is some problem in the payment gateway during the online transaction due to which the transaction might fail,” said Harsh Batra, an IT professional.
In 2022, the Karnataka State Legislative Service Authority (KSLSA) conducted an inspection at NIMHANS and identified issues related to overcrowding. NIMHANS authorities recommended extending the OPD appointment time from 8 a.m. to 12 p.m. from the previous timing of 8 a.m. to 11 a.m. to reduce overcrowding.
However, the receptionist at NIMHANS confirmed that there has not been any change in the appointment timings. Jaishankar, the member secretary of NIMHANS, said that the timing of the OPD appointment will not change as of now.
