Chandigarh: Patients at Govt Medical College and Hospital (GMCH) are being forced to make repeat visits and queue for paper copies of their biochemistry reports after the hospital’s online reporting service developed glitches following its integration with the Ayushman Bharat Health Account (ABHA) system.Until recently, patients could view and download reports from home and plan follow-up visits accordingly. The disruption has cut off that convenience, adding to queues and crowding at the hospital as patients return to collect reports manually.The glitches surfaced after GMCH migrated from its internal hospital management portal, developed by the National Informatics Centre (NIC), to a centralised national-level NIC platform around a month ago to accommodate the ABHA framework. Hospital staff have also encountered problems while uploading biochemistry reports.“A few months ago, it was easy to check the report online and plan a hospital visit accordingly. Now, we have to return to collect it. The staff told us that work to resolve the issue was under way,” said a patient’s relative.Medical superintendent Dr Vishal Guglani attributed the disruption to glitches arising from the migration between the two platforms.“We are working with the NIC technical team in Delhi to resolve the glitches and streamline the process. It may take a month or so,” he said.Until the service is restored, patients will have to collect their biochemistry reports from the hospital, resulting in longer waits and additional visits.
