The Queue!
by afaal on Jun.13, 2009, under General
Everyday people queue up to take a token in the morning, at noon and in the afternoon. Almost five queues are formed everyday at different times. The number of people in the queue depends very much on the doctor on duty and the times when the doctor starts appointments. Tokens for a particular doctor’s duty get released an hour before the consultation time. In order to get a token people start to queue up as early as two or even three hours before the token release time. And the worst part is that tokens for a doctor may run out without everyone in the queue getting one. It is a hassle and it is annoying!
It is also difficult administratively. A staff member has to monitor the queue every time and also have to hand over an additional identification token to each person in the queue for each doctor separately. This way the people waiting would know that that they would not get a token on that day. Anyway, as I said before it is an annoying situation.
So what can we do to stop this form happening? Well we have already done some work on this. For example for the gynecology department, after the first contact, appointments are set for the rest of the nine months. Some other departments are also practicing this system now. This is a relief for these patients and also well appreciated when customer relations call to remind them the appointment. This is why for some doctors the number of tokens release for queue on a particular day varies. The doctor still consults the average standard of 35 or more patients a day.
We are contemplating to totally abolish the queue. How? By introducing phone and email appointments. But we will have to be well prepared and the mechanism needs to be tested before full implementation. We are also trying to work on a more interactive token machine.
Some people suggest starting to release the tokens in the morning for the doctors who will be on duty that day. My view on this is it will not solve the problem since then there will be a long long long long queue in the morning.
Irony is, even if we have a queue or appointments, we will not be able to give a token to each and every one on the same day they require it. The solutions to this would perhaps be increasing the number of doctors and consultation rooms. There is a difficulty with this also at the moment since there is no space and the scarcity of doctors applying for even available vacancies.
I feel that there should many ways by which a patient can get a doctor’s appointment. Walk-in, phone, email and by website too. I am very determined to get these conveniences to the care seekers and hope to make amends to make it easier for you to get an appointment. I feel for you all waiting in the queue.
All bright ideas are welcome and we will try to learn from shared experiences.
January 13th, 2010 on 10:12 pm
u can start sms system of appoiuntment. automatically it get storesd in ur PC and token numer is sent toback to the patient
August 12th, 2009 on 3:28 pm
Even the IGMH has the phone system and we have to call and call until we get through and its not convenient. The phone lines would all be busy for most part of the scheduled time to make appointments. If you can find a convenient way of managing this then I think it would be good.
Good luck.
June 26th, 2009 on 12:00 am
Hi , i too feel sorry for all the people who stand in hot sun and some times in rain to get a number to see the doctor.
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it’s bit difficult problem to solve. but some options can be tried.
As you have mentioned e-mail and phone appointments are good but it has to be made sure the person taking the token should not miss the time as that would lead to un necessary waiting time and loss of valuable consultation time for the needy patient. so it has to be made sure the person is given an appointment on payment consultation fee ( how and when has to be worked out ), as we take things seriously only when we pay
Can use online payment as most of the Maldivens now use BML VISA debit card.
Another option will be issue the appointments for the whole week ahead. and the hospital big monitor can be used to display the availability of the appointments for the doctors.
Setting up a token and appointment issuing Machine with interactive display in hospital premises, where a person can walk in to any time just like to a ATM and access the details of the doctors on duty and availability of tokens for the week . and attached BML bill pay machine is a must as the person an pay the consultation fee then and there and go with the token.
And there is another thing the report review patients, its unfair for a patient to wait in a long Que just to show the report, either a part of consultation time has to be kept apart for review patients , or separate Que should be made or the patient should be able to get an appointment for the report review date , the same day of first consultation.
Well all said t is bit tricky thing, with each option having its own Pro’s and Cons , i think the Hospital’s patients safety committee should set up a task group to look in to the various ways ques can be reduced , Doctors opinions and suggestions are to be taken and a viable way to be found.
June 13th, 2009 on 2:45 am
Appreciate u sharing this! hope ur gonna make it convenient as soon as possible.
best regards.