There is a digital way of regulating flow of patients at
government and private hospitals, but the Goa Medical
College hospital is still stuck in a time warp. As a part of
the Digital India programme, the Centre launched the “Online
Registration System (ORS) framework in July 2015, whereby,
rather than standing in long queues one can get OPD slips online
for an appointment. Under this system, one can even easily
gain access to lab reports from the comfort of one’s home.
Also, thanks to the ORS, patients and their families need no
longer run from pillar to post looking for blood either as details
are available online. As of this day, about 69 hospitals in
20 states have gone online under this framework booking over
a thousand appointments each day. Alas, the Goa Medical College
is not one of them. Serpentine queues line the corridors
and dejected faces are still very much a feature of this old establishment.
Patients who come in on the first bus looking for
an appointment are still sent back at the end of the day with
nothing to show for their effort. There is no doubt that the GMC
needs to be part of the online portal, and soon. Maybe, this
could be the first task at hand for the new health minister of
the state.
