Clinics and outpatient departments in hospitals will have a new normal once they resume functioning, to avoid Covid-19 infections.

Patients might benefit from the new system as many doctors will be forced to improve their time management and not let the number of patients swell, resulting in shorter waiting time, officials of hospitals and clinics said.

In the new normal, patients’ appointments will be taken by phone and each patient given a particular slot. They will be asked to strictly follow the timings, while doctors, too, will have to tweak their plans to ensure patients are examined on time, said officials.

The number of patients at a clinic or hospital OPD will go down significantly to ensure social distancing.

At many clinics and OPDs, where hundreds of people visit every day, patients often have to wait for hours before they get a chance to meet the doctor, leading to crowding.

In the new system, each patient will be given a time slot and the doctors will be told about the timings. Many clinics said they would cancel appointments if patients turn up late.

A number of doctors said they would refer any patient with fever to a fever clinic at any hospital, where physicians wearing personal protective equipment will examine him or her.

Apollo Gleneagles Hospitals, which has a separate OPD unit on its EM Bypass campus and runs several other clinics across the city, has told its doctors, including surgeons, to improve time management, an official at the hospital said.

“Surgeons and other doctors doing procedures often get delayed because they get caught in operating theatres. That is one reason for delays at OPDs and clinics. We are planning to ask doctors to schedule surgeries and consultations on different days to ensure there is no delay in OPDs,” said an official of the hospital.

The OPDs in most hospitals have started opening up and so are some clinics. But the number of doctors and patients is very low, compared with the usual pre-lockdown turnout.

On Tuesday, the Association of Hospitals of Eastern India, a non-statutory body comprising several private hospitals in Calcutta, held a meeting to discuss how to restore normality. Association sources said one important factor was managing OPDs and clinics.

“It is now easier to manage given the low patient footfall, but once the numbers start rising, we have to come up with new norms,” said an official of a private hospital, which is a member of the association.

“Walk-in appointments, which used to be very common, would not be allowed by most hospitals and clinics except for emergency cases,” he said.

“We’ll have to improve our timings, otherwise there will be crowding. Also, there will be fewer follow-up consultations because that could be done online,” said physician Amitabha Saha.

Owners of standalone medicine stores across neighbourhoods of Calcutta, which have small clinics for doctors, are also tweaking their system.

The owner of one shop said he was asking patients to turn up only a few minutes before the scheduled time.