About 1.5 lakh AIIMS patients benefited from ORS: Govt

New Delhi: About 1.5 lakh patients have benefited from the online registration system (ORS) which was launched in AIIMS in New Delhi last year, the government on Friday said.

"ORS has been launched in AIIMS, New Delhi on July 4, 2015. The ORS has linked all departments of AIIMS in New Delhi on the Aadhar enabled software platform."

"The software can be utilised online or through a web-kiosk or through a call centre. As on February 22, this year 1.49 lakh patients have benefited by this facility," Health Minister JP Nadda said in a written reply in the Lok Sabha.

He said the online appointment facility has already been started in AIIMS, Bhubaneshwar, Raipur and Jodhpur. In AIIMS, Patna, online appointment facility has been started on trial basis, he said.

He said in some of the clinical departments for elective or non-emergency procedures there is a waiting time of up to 3-6 months.

"To reduce the waiting time, the government has taken a number of steps which include recruitment of more faculty, para-medical and nursing staff, additional operation theatres and IPD wards and augmentation of patient-care facilities," he said.

ORS application has been hosted on the cloud services of NIC. The portal facilitates online appointments with various departments of hospitals using eKYC data of Aadhaar number, if patient's mobile number is registered with UIDAI.

And in case mobile number is not registered with UIDAI it uses patient's name. New patient will get appointment as well as Unique Health Identification (UHID) number. If Aadhaar number is already linked with UHID number, then appointment number will be given and UHID will remain same.