PATNA, May 23 -- The century-old Patna Medical College Hospital (PMCH) will begin its outdoor patient department (OPD) in cardiology daily in its new building block from Saturday, said its medical superintendent Dr IS Thakur on Thursday. "The cardiology OPD used to function only three days a week earlier. Beginning Saturday, we are now increasing its frequency to six days a week, with Sunday being weekly holiday for OPD services," said Dr Thakur. Dr Thakur issued an order to this effect on Thursday evening. The PMCH administration is also shifting the OPD of the physical medicine and rehabilitation (PMR), related to physiotherapy and other exercises, to the new OPD building block, comprising two towers, each of nine-storey, Bihar's chief minister Nitish Kumar had inaugurated on May 3. Both the OPDs were functioning on a make-shift basis in the central utility block (CUB) till the L&T, the agency undertaking the Rs 5460 crore PMCH renovation project, completed the twin towers last month. "We hope to begin the OPD services of ear, nose, throat (ENT) department in the new building block from next month as we are awaiting some equipment, which the L&T has to provide us, as part of the project," said Dr Thakur. To begin with, the cardiology OPD at the PMCH will have facility of at least one of the three proposed 3D colour doppler echocardiography machine, three tread mill test and one electrocardiogram machine. The PMCH earlier did not have facility for echo and other services in the OPD of cardiology department for the last four years, despite requests to the Bihar Medical Services Infrastructure Company Limited (BMSICL) to provide basic state-of-art equipment necessary to run OPD services of cardiology department. The BMSICL overlooked the requirement of the PMCH cardiology department for years due to the proximity of the Indira Gandhi Cardiology Institute, a state-run super-specialty unit in cardiology, being on the same campus as the PMCH, said people familiar with the matter. The geriatrics OPD at the hospital will also function four days a week....