Covid report mandatory for outpatients at SGPGIMS

Lucknow: Though the Yogi Aditynath government allowed outpatient services to reopen at all government medical facilities form Friday, the Sanjay Gandhi Postgraduate Institute of Medical Sciences (SGPGIMS) will resume from Monday, but with a rider.

The SGPGIMS, in a statement, has said that consultation with the specialists will not be possible unless patients and attendants come with a RTPCR/Trunat Covid-19 negative report.

OPD services will function from Monday to Saturday.

All patients and their attendants will have to maintain Covid-appropriate behaviour (wearing masks and maintaining social distancing) while visiting the OPD.

Officials said to cater to post-Covid complications of patients, a Post-Covid Clinic will also be started from Monday in the SGPGIMS.

"The clinic will be run by a team of senior doctors who will give consultation to those post-Covid patients, who have been discharged from Rajdhani Corona Hospital, SGPGI and have been advised to consult in post-Covid clinic for related pulmonary, cardiac, endocrine or neurological problems. The clinic will also cater to post-Covid SGPGI healthcare workers and their family members who are referred by health care workers surveillance committee," an official spokesperson said.

The post-Covid e-OPD will also function and patients can call at the dedicated number to consult the experts. Clinicians can also give an appointment to patients in case they feel the need.

Meanwhile, several patients waiting to avail OPD services, said that getting a Covid negative report was a cumbersome process and will further delay outpatient consultations.

"Getting Covid negative report for the patient as well as the attendants will only add to inconvenience in the pandemic and make consultations even more difficult. If we are asked to report back for consultation after a fortnight, we will again require Covid negative reports," said Ram Kishore Agarwal, a septuagenarian who is an outpatient at the SGPGIMS and is being treated for a neurological disorder.