All India Institute of Medical Sciences (AIIMS) Delhi on Wednesday said that it has started AIIMS Smart Card in some of the departments of the premier health institute and the facility would be available across all departments by March 31 this year for enabling all kinds of payments.
“Subsequently, no cash payment shall be accepted at any counters other than at the ‘AIIMS Smart Card’ top-up counters which shall be operationalised in multiple locations within the OPDs, Hospital and Centres and shall operate on a 24/7 basis…”, AIIMS Delhi said in a statement.
“Other than electronic payments via UPI, debit cards, credit cards, etc, ‘AIIMS Smart Card’ will be the only way to make payments for all investigations and procedures,” the premier health institute further said.
It further emphasised that patients or their attendants would not be required to visit the central registration counters in order to make any payments; instead, all payments would be accepted at the payment endpoints situated nearest to the patient location.
According to the order, the initiative was taken to move all payments to digital mode and to improve patient convenience so that they don’t need to stand in queues to make payments for various investigations and procedures for getting food in the cafeteria.
“A recent news report has highlighted that at another similar institution, an outsourced service provider had tampered with the final discharge bills of patients and charged them more thereby causing them financial loss and mental agony,” the order stated.
“Accordingly, it is advised that the AIIMS Smart Card which has been started on pilot basis in few areas should be operationalized pan-AIIMS New Delhi for all sorts of payments by 31 March 2024,” the premier health institute said in a statement.
