No transport for patients as polls inch closer

RANCHI: Gopal Vishwakarma, 47 year old resident of Lohardaga had a chemotherapy session at Rajendra Institute of Medical Sciences (RIMS) on the morning of November 21, but had no vehicle to bring him to Ranchi. In the end, his family hired one of the few remaining Sumos in town for Rs2500, nearly double the normal fare.
Vishwakarma is one among hundreds of patients from nearby towns and hamlets, who are battling for transport to reach Ranchi's hospitals while hundreds of public and private vehicles have been taken away for election duty.
The normally bustling RIMS out-patient department (OPD) has recorded a fall in patients. Catering to nearly 1600 patients each day, the OPD has received 700 on an average during this week.
"Most of them are from Palamu, Koderma, Hazaribagh and Simdega districts," an OPD cleric pointed out on Friday. Similar sight prevails in Sadar hospital, whose OPD facility receives close to 700 patients every day. "The numbers have fallen sharply since the first phase of elections have inched closer," a staff at the facility said.
The drop in numbers has also eased RIMS of over occupancy. "Despite having 1100 beds, we have nearly 1600 occupants on regular days. There are nearly 1200 now," RIMS director, Dr S K Choudhary said. Choudhary predicted a further dip in numbers in the next fortnight when constituencies neighboring the capital will go to polls.
Patients and their family members said the situation was worse than the bygone Lok Sabha elections.
"There were a handful of vehicles around during Lok Sabha polls. This time there are none. Not to mention the unavailability of ambulances, which is a regular affair," remarked Nirmal Kujur, a resident of Daltonganj, who brought his octogenarian father to RIMS for surgery.
"Had there been good medical centers in the districts, we would not have had to undergo such harassment," said Nirmala Devi, a patient from Giridih.