DH Pulwama registers 6 lakh OPD patients in a year

Pulwama, Mar 29: The District Hospital (DH) Pulwama, designated as a model health facility, recorded an unprecedented 6 lakh outpatient department (OPD) visits last year, the highest in Kashmir.
Medical Superintendent Dr. Abdul Gani Dar told Rising Kashmir that the hospital sees an average of 2,000 new patients daily across various OPDs.
He said that DH Pulwama is one of three designated model health facilities in the Union Territory (UT) of Jammu and Kashmir, alongside the medical colleges in Kathua and Udhampur.
The hospital has earned this distinction for excelling in key performance parame-ters, including the Ayushman Bharat Health Account (ABHA) and e-Sahaj initia-tives.
However, the hospital faces challenges due to high patient inflow.
To address congestion and enhance patient care, authorities are constructing a 50-bed Critical Care Block (CCB) under the Government of India’s Emergency Re-sponse and Health System Preparedness Package (ECRP).
“Construction of the ground floor is nearly complete, and slab work is expected to begin next month,” Dr. Dar said.
The CCB will be equipped to handle emergencies across multiple specialties and will help decongest the existing casualty unit, which currently has only 20 beds.
To further alleviate overcrowding, some hospital sections have already been relo-cated to the COVID Hospital built in 2019, with plans for additional shifts to en-hance public health standards.
The Medical Superintendent stated that they are working on integrating the hospital laboratory with an online system, allowing patients to access their test reports re-motely without visiting the hospital.
“A unique code will be provided to each patient, enabling them to download their test reports from home,” he said.
This measure is also expected to decongest the hospital, the authorities said.