PATNA, May 15 -- Registration of new patients for consultation at outdoor patient departments (OPD) will be done between 8am and 11.30am on weekdays and from 8am to 10am on Saturday from May 15, effectively curtailing it by an hour, at Patna's All-India Institute of Medical Sciences (AIIMS), as per an order issued by its medical superintendent Dr Anup Kumar on Wednesday. The registration timing will be the same for revisits by patients who have consulted at the institute earlier and had their OPD booklet, which cost Rs.30. For strict implementation of the order, the medical superintendent had advised the faculty in-charge of its information technology (IT) department to lock the OPD registration process in the hospital information system (HIS) after the stipulated time of registration of patients. In revising the OPD registration timings, the AIIMS administration had reduced the registration time for patients by one hour, as they could register till 12.30pm earlier, said hospital sources. Reducing the OPD registration timing will help curtail the number of patients and reduce the pressure on doctors, while also extending quality consultation to patients, as doctors could then expect to wind up their OPD duty by 4pm, said a doctor familiar with the matter. The AIIMS extends OPD services in 29 disciplines and registers an average 1200 to 1500 new patients in the OPD daily, with an average combined patient footfall of new and old patients of 3,500 (approx) per day. Some faculty members, however, reacted strongly, criticising the new order, fixing the OPD registration timing for patients. "Patients come to our institute from far-flung areas of Bihar and may get delayed reaching the hospital. The new order will deprive them of OPD consultation if they do not reach the institute well within the new time for registration of OPD patients. Since most patients in Bihar are poor, the order is unfair for them," said a doctor....