Bhubaneswar: Patients visiting AIIMS Bhubaneswar for affordable and advanced healthcare are facing significant difficulties in securing OPD appointments, with long queues at registration counters and limited availability of online slots making access to treatment increasingly challenging.

Every day, patients and their attendants begin waiting outside the hospital's main gate from the previous night to improve their chances of getting an OPD ticket. Once the gates open, people rush towards the registration counters, often leading to jostling. Those who reach the counters early manage to obtain tickets, while many others, particularly elderly and physically challenged patients, are left without appointments and are forced to return.

Although AIIMS Bhubaneswar offers online OPD registration through its app to reduce crowding at the counters, patients say the facility provides little relief. Only around 5 to 10 per cent of the total tickets in each department are reportedly made available online. In several departments, appointment slots are unavailable for up to two months, making the online system ineffective for many patients, especially those travelling from distant districts.

Taking advantage of the limited online availability of slots, some middlemen are allegedly exploiting patients who want to secure appointments.

AIIMS Bhubaneswar currently issues around 3,000 to 3,500 OPD tickets daily. High-demand departments such as General Medicine, Orthopaedics and Paediatrics issue around 300 to 400 tickets each day. However, specialised departments including Neurology, Cardiology, Nephrology and Gastroenterology have fewer appointment slots.

The OPD registration counters open at 7:30 am, but tickets in most departments are exhausted between 8:30 am and 9:00 am, leaving many patients empty-handed despite waiting in long queues for hours.

Responding to the concerns, AIIMS Bhubaneswar Medical Superintendent Dr Prabhas Ranjan Tripathy said there is little scope to increase the number of OPD tickets at present. He said the institute attracts a large number of patients because of its reputation for quality healthcare.

He added that while ticket numbers have been increased in some departments, certain specialities require longer consultation times, making it difficult to accommodate more patients in a single day. He also rejected claims that the shortage of OPD appointments is due to a lack of doctors.