Patients move higher-up against OPD

Staff Reporter

GUWAHATI, May 23: All is not well with the OPD centre of the Regional Institute of Opthalmology here. The institute has its accommodation in the Gauhati Medical College and Hospital (GMCH). Examination of patients’ eye power at the OPD has to be done in the presence of a registrar. According to allegations, in most of the time the registrars on duty remain absent, leading patients to wait for long hours. The eye examination is done by some postgraduate students, who, however, are not authorized to sign the examination reports. It often happens that even when a patient’s eyes are examined by a PG student, the patient cannot get the report unless it is signed by the registrar. It so happened on Wednesday that Registrar Dr. A Latif was absent in his OPD duty. Patients whose eyes were examined by PG students had to wait for their reports for a long time. The reports could not be given to the patients because they were not signed by the registrar. Some of the angry patients had to inform the Principal Secretary of Health Samir Sinha of the matter over telephone in the form of complaints.