Ahmedabad, September 17: The Gujarat government on Saturday announced that the timings of out-patient department (OPD) at state-run hospitals will be extended by two hours.

While the morning hours will remain the same from 9 am to 1 pm, the timings in the evenings have been revised from 4 pm to 8 pm, after the addition of two more hours, additional chief secretary, Health, Manoj Aggarwal said in Gandhinagar. Gujarat: Villagers Carry Pregnant Woman to Hospital on Shoulder Due to Unavailability of Motor Road.

Earlier, the OPDs in government hospitals functioned between 4 pm and 6 pm. "The two extra hours in the evenings will help people to come for check-ups after finishing their work. Now instead of six hours, OPDs at all government-run hospitals and health centres will function for eight hours — four hours in the morning and four in the evening," Aggarwal told reporters.

On an average, doctors attend to nearly 1.230 lakh patients in the six-hour period. With the latest extension, 35,000 more patients can be treated every day, he said. In another announcement, Aggarwal said one relative or attendant accompanying a patient who is admitted will now be given meals twice a day at hospitals.

"While patients get meals in the hospital, the relatives who accompany them have to go out in search of food. Hence, we have decided to provide meals to one attendant twice a day," he said.

This will put an additional burden of nearly Rs 40 lakh on the government per day, the official said. The government will rope in NGOs who wish to contribute towards this service for poor patients and their relatives, he said.

Persons above the age of 60 will be attended on priority basis at hospitals through separate queues at OPDs, case windows, physiotherapy centres, laboratories and medicine windows, he said.

Moreover, all government-run hospitals and community health centres will be asked to create separate wards for senior citizens. If that is not feasible, then at least two beds can be reserved for them, Aggarwal added.

(This is an unedited and auto-generated story from Syndicated News feed, LatestLY Staff may not have modified or edited the content body)