Panaji: Around 7,000 people booked online appointments for GMC OPDs till date. The service was started on Feb 4.Despite GMC starting online appointments for its OPDs, some busy departments like general medicine continued to see crowds queuing up and waiting to be seen by doctors.GMC attributed this to busy departments like general medicine seeing a high patient volume each day, between 300 to 350 people.In addition, even online-booked patients must complete registration at the counter starting 8am, leading to morning clustering.“Doctors attend to each patient individually and quality consultations take time, especially in complex cases,” said Dr Dhaval A Faterpenkar, nodal officer IT and Egov, GMC.“A significant number of patients still prefer direct visits without prior booking. There is also the digital awareness gap and not all patients are yet aware of or comfortable with online booking,” he said.The new transition phase requires time for behavioural adaptation, he said.With online booking, patients can choose from three available time slots and are required to arrive only 30 minutes before the appointment, reducing their waiting time and overcrowding, he said.The advantages to GMC include better OPD load distribution, structured patient inflow, reduced manual errors, transparent record keeping, reduced dependency on telephone lines, and better planning of manpower and consultation slots, he said.
