58% patients examined in under 5 mins
Excelsior Correspondent
SRINAGAR, Mar 31: The Comptroller and Auditor General (CAG) of India has flagged deficiencies in outpatient services across Government health institutions in Jammu and Kashmir, citing long waiting times, uneven doctor workload, and very short consultation durations.
In its audit report on Public Health Infrastructure and Management of Health Services for the period ended March 2022 (Report No. 2 of 2025, Performance Audit-Civil), recently tabled in the Assembly, the CAG examined outpatient department (OPD) functioning between 2016 and 2022.
The audit found wide disparities in the number of patients handled per doctor across healthcare facilities, pointing to imbalances in staffing and uneven distribution of patient load.
At Sub-District Hospital Bijbehara, a doctor handled an average of 49,892 OPD cases annually, while at SDH Jagti the figure was significantly lower at 2,389 cases per doctor per year, indicating uneven workload across institutions.
The report said OPD cases per doctor per day are a key indicator of efficiency and the variation reflects a mismatch between patient load and availability of doctors, underscoring the need for rational creation and deployment of posts.
The CAG also highlighted that consultation time for patients remains critically low across institutions.
In tertiary hospitals during 2016-22, 59.69 lakh patients were examined for less than five minutes, 73.35 lakh for five to ten minutes and 11.22 lakh for more than ten minutes.
In district hospitals, 65.24 lakh patients were examined for less than five minutes, 29.06 lakh for five to ten minutes and only 3.71 lakh for more than ten minutes.
In sub-district hospitals and community health centres, 55.81 lakh patients were examined for less than five minutes, 52.32 lakh for five to ten minutes and 37.86 lakh for more than ten minutes.
Overall, 58 per cent of patients were examined for less than five minutes, while fewer than two per cent reported consultation times exceeding 15 minutes.
To assess waiting times, the audit included a patient survey of 750 outpatients across tertiary, district, sub-district hospitals and community health centres.
The findings showed delays at multiple stages of care. For registration, 325 patients or 43 per cent were registered within five minutes, while 141 took six to ten minutes, 115 took 11 to 15 minutes and 169 patients waited for more than 15 minutes.
Only 17 patients in tertiary hospitals were registered within five minutes compared to 157 in community health centres, while 66 patients in tertiary hospitals and 46 in district hospitals waited for over 15 minutes.
The report noted that 34 per cent of patients in tertiary and district hospitals took more than 15 minutes for registration.
The waiting time between registration and consultation was also considerable.
While 357 patients were attended within 15 minutes, 196 waited between 16 and 30 minutes, 145 waited between 31 and 60 minutes and 52 patients waited for more than an hour.
In tertiary hospitals alone, 90 patients waited between 31 and 60 minutes and 41 patients waited for over 60 minutes.
The audit observed that 62 per cent of patients in tertiary hospitals waited more than 30 minutes to consult a doctor, while across district hospitals, sub-district hospitals and community health centres, around 40 per cent patients waited more than 15 minutes after registration.
Regarding consultation duration in the surveyed sample, 436 patients were examined for up to five minutes, 262 for six to ten minutes, 39 for 11 to 15 minutes and only 13 patients for more than 15 minutes.
The CAG said that the combination of long waiting periods and short consultation times reflects systemic pressure on public health institutions and said the variation in OPD load indicates an imbalance between doctor availability and patient inflow.
It recommended that staffing be aligned with patient load and that such analysis guide the creation and deployment of posts to improve efficiency and quality of care in outpatient departments across J&K.
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