New Delhi, Sep 21 (PTI) In a major relief to patients visiting AIIMS, Delhi, the time duration of sample collection for diagnostic tests at the facility has been increased by three and a half hours, officials said on Tuesday.

Samples will now be collected from 8 am to 3.30 pm, they said.

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Also, with the new robotic 'smart lab' becoming functional at the hospital, over 50,000 individual tests are being conducted in a day. The lab has a capacity to conduct over two lakh tests in a single day, the officials said.

Union Health Minister Mansukh Mandaviya visited the lab on Monday and reviewed its functioning.

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Dr Subrata Sinha, head of the Department of Laboratory Medicine at the facility, said earlier, the number of samples that could be collected and processed per day was comparatively limited, with 2,000 individual samples being processed in a day and each one being subjected to an of average 20-25 tests.

Samples of the outpatient department were collected till forenoon and those with fasting would give their samples till 10.30 am because one cannot be made to fast for a long period, he explained.

"According to the recent order issued on September 18, because of our increased ability to process samples due to the new automated systems, we have increased the collection time till 3.30 pm for all samples, and for those who require fasting, samples will be collected till 11.30 am.

"These will enable many more patients who have been advised investigations, including from the morning OPD, to give samples on the same day, thereby not requiring them to visit the facility another day," Sinha said.

On Saturdays, the timing for sample collection at the old Raj Kumari Amrit Kaur (RAK) OPD is from 8 am to 10.30 am, and at the new RAK OPD, it is 8 am to 1 pm.

Similarly, with the new robotic laboratory, results of more than 95 per cent of the investigations are being made available the same day that the samples are collected. This particularly applies to investigations involving haematology (haemoglobin, blood counts etc.) clinical chemistry (glucose, liver function test, kidney function test etc) and serology (related to antibodies to infectious viral agents etc), he explained.

"Also, because of the robotic laboratory, there would be an increase in the accuracy of the results. The results would be available quicker as well," Sinha added.

The laboratory became operational in July last year, the doctor said.

"Several changes have started taking place at Centre-run hospitals in their day-to-day operations in the last one month with the new health minister reviewing the functioning of these facilities," an official said.

(The above story is verified and authored by Press Trust of India (PTI) staff. PTI, India’s premier news agency, employs more than 400 journalists and 500 stringers to cover almost every district and small town in India.. The views appearing in the above post do not reflect the opinions of LatestLY)