Doctors’ OP timings, vacancies to be displayed at all Kerala govt hospitals

Thiruvananthapuram: The Keralam government has directed all state-run hospitals to prominently display details of doctors, vacancies and their outpatient (OP) timings to ensure greater transparency in healthcare services.

The Health Department Principal Secretary has directed the Director of Health Services to ensure strict implementation of the order.

The directive will apply to all government health institutions, ranging from primary health centres to taluk headquarters hospitals, Health and Devaswom Minister K Muraleedharan said in a statement.
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The action follows complaints from the public about the functioning of public health institutions, including instances of doctors being unavailable during OP hours and patients having to wait for long periods, he said.

Under the directive, each institution must display the total number of sanctioned doctor posts, the number of doctors currently working and the number of vacancies.

The OP and consultation timings of each doctor must also be clearly displayed, with the information updated at regular intervals.

The move is aimed at making healthcare services more transparent and patient-friendly, the minister said.

The hospitals will also have to display details of the grievance redressal mechanism.
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The Director of Health Services has been directed to ensure that the phone numbers of the concerned Deputy District Medical Officer (Vigilance) and the hospital superintendent are prominently displayed for the public to contact them, the statement added.
 

PTI