Doctors and patients are facing problems due to Ayushman portal update

Indore (Madhya Pradesh): A new update in Ayushman portal TMS 2.0 is causing problems to patients and staff in government hospitals. It is now mandatory to send an OTP to the phone of the attending doctor to admit, treat or discharge the patient.

Unless OTP is entered on the portal, the patient's treatment will not be started. Patients at Maharaja Yashwantrao Hospital (MY Hospital) and other big hospitals are facing problems as it is challenging to find a concerned doctor. “If the doctor is busy in surgery or elsewhere, patients and their families face long delays. This has led to daily arguments at the registration counters, as people expect quick treatment under the Ayushman scheme,” said MY Hospital staff.

He said that not only the staff but also the doctors were repeatedly frustrated with the OTP process and that they were neither trained nor informed in advance about this update. “Complaint has been made to higher authorities, but no action has been taken so far,” the employees said. The OTP system was introduced to prevent misuse of Ayushman funds and maintain proper records. Meanwhile, the problem increased due to malfunction of e-health software, especially in MY Hospital.

Officials have decided to temporarily revert to older software, but this has not solved the problems. MY Hospital management has directed the staff to give priority to patient care despite the delay in registration. It is likely that the software will be fixed soon, but till then both patients and staff will have to face problems.