Hosps struggle to tackle patient rush on 1st weekday after stir rollback
Times of India | 24 September 2024
Kolkata: State-run hospitals saw a huge influx of patients in outpatient and emergency departments from the city and far-off districts on Monday, the first weekday after junior doctors returned from cease-work and partially resumed services.
The patients, especially those from far-off places, who could not make it to the govt hospitals in the city since Aug due to the turmoil and cease-work by doctors, started queuing up outside OPDs in early morning and waited for several hours for their turn on Monday.
On Monday, TOI found the city’s state-run hospital campuses teeming with patients in the morning like what it used to be prior to the R G Kar incident.
Samrat Singha of Jangipur in Murshidabad brought his father, Gopal Singha, a throat cancer patient, to NRS Medical College and Hospital for a check-up around 4.50 am on Monday. Finally, his turn came around 12 noon and he decided to stay on the hospital campus with the patient who was put on a nasal tube.
Samrat said, “We took a train last night and reached the hospital around 4.50 am. My father has been suffering from throat cancer and I did not bring him to NRS hospital last week for the check-up being aware that the doctors were on cease-work. Today, it was a six-hour wait for me because normalcy in medical services has not been restored fully.”
When Hajiba Bibi, a patient suffering from partial paralysis, reached SSKM from Baranagar around 6.30 am, she found that many others had already reached there. “I waited for a long time outside the OPD and then I was sent to the emergency where there was a huge rush of patients. I was done with my check-up in the afternoon. I feel that had the medical services resumed completely, the wait time would have reduced.”
Rohini Kanta Seal (70), a resident of Belgharia, who needs to undergo a surgery for removal of stone from urinary bladder, came to the Medical College Hospital around 5 am. “Two weeks ago I had come but could not see a doctor because the cease-work was on. Today, a huge number of patients has come after the cease-work was partially called off. I waited till 1 pm for my turn to consult the doctor.”
Some patients and their kin alleged that despite having waited for long, they were refused admission for “unavailability of beds”. Sk Riyazul Rahaman, a skin disease patient whose both legs were swollen with pain, waited in Medical College Hospital since morning but he could not get admitted. “I have been looking for hospitalisation in past two weeks but to no avail. I am having so much pain that I am unable to stand. Bearing with the pain, I waited for a long time but could not be admitted as I was told that there was no bed,” he said.
Meheboob Hussain from Usti in South 24 Parganas, who is suffering from urinary ailment, came to the SSKM for the fifth time but could not get admitted. “I came to the hospital today, expecting that I would get treatment. But I am returning as I was told that no bed was available. I won’t be able to afford treatment at a private hospital,” he said.