AIIMS Delhi sees an average Outpatient Department (OPD) footfall of 14,000-15,000 patients a day, putting an enormous demand on one of the country’s key public hospitals.
The patient footfall is more on Mondays and Thursdays. “The footfall is 14,000-15,000 on average.
It’s not the same everyday but this is the average,” a senior doctor said.
The data has put a spotlight on the challenges of accessing care at an institution that handles such a massive daily patient load and on how those waiting for specialised treatment, especially poorer patients, experience that wait. “AIIMS is a premier medical institution and we have the best doctors. The figures show the scale of healthcare delivery at AIIMS Delhi, while NDTV’s ground report also cites challenges some patients face while seeking specialised treatment.
Because of reports, analysis or because a procedure cannot be performed immediately due to a complex variety of reasons, patients do sometimes have to wait, mostly.
The doctor said waiting times can vary depending on the nature of the treatment and the clinical requirements. All patients are looked after with care and dignity,” the doctor said. Patients and their families maintained that the medical institution provides the best of care but said long waits for procedures and dates can add to their anxiety, particularly in cases involving cancer, tumours and other serious illnesses.
The scale of this footfall is also reflected in the long waits that patients, particularly those who cannot afford private healthcare, often have to navigate. For them, subsidised treatment at AIIMS can make the difference between getting specialised care and going without it. Her parents alleged that the date of her surgery for a congenital heart defect kept changing and that the procedure was never performed.
Because doctors had concluded that surgery was not medically feasible in her case and needed medical management instead, aIIMS has maintained that the first surgery was not performed. The capacity crunch at Delhi AIIMS, one of the premier hospitals of the country, comes into focus after the death of 15-year-old Tanvi from Rajasthan on Tuesday. Tanvi had been making rounds of AIIMS for 13 years and was being evaluated for a possible heart-lung transplant before she died.
