JOIN USAt Lok Nayak Hospital, it is a long wait for old patients queuing up to seek a slip for the afternoon outdoor patient department registration.
The queue for new cases is, however, negligible.
The long queue is mainly because there are only two OPD registration counters one for male and the other for female as against the several counters for new registration of cases in one of the wings.
“Several counters devoted to new patients’ registration have helped us to deal with the rush of patients coming for fresh cases. However, since most of the old cases are referral and there are fewer counters, it ends up in a long queue.
Patients have to wait for long before their turns come for the OPD slips,” said a hospital official, requesting anonymity.
The queues for “OPD registration Female” is usually much longer than that of “OPD registration Male”.
“The number of patients registering in old cases is more than those for the new ones. While it would be around between 1300-1600 for the old registration cases, it would be around 1000-1200 for the new cases across all departments,” the official added.
These are the consolidated figures for the morning and afternoon OPDs.
A Bulandshahr resident, Mithiesh has to visit the hospital on a monthly basis for an orthopaedic problem. “It becomes really difficult to wait for such a long period. I easily feel fatigued as I am also a patient of diabetes and thyroid,” said the 59-year-old.
‘Need more counters’
Raziya Begum, 35, said, “It is really odd why they do not open more counters for the old registration cases in spite of having so much space. I have been waiting for over two hours only to get the registration slip. We come here only for the quality treatment.”
Besides, the endless wait at the pharmacy only adds to her woes, said the resident of Bhajanpura in north-east Delhi.
“In spite of waiting for hours, we realise half of the medicines are not available at the pharmacy,” alleged Begum.
Hope on new building
The new building of LNJP, which will be commissioned by mid-July, is likely to resolve the existing problems.
The hospital authorities aim to make “waiting” a more comfortable experience for the patients in the new building. Also with more number of counters, the waiting period of patients will come down.