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Hospital blues
KATHMANDU, JAN 20 - Time: 7 a.m. Location: a government hospital. Scene: perpetual queue at the ticket counter.
People from all age groups are crowding the government hospitals at this hour of the day. Some have been in the line for several hours while others are seen jostling for a place to sit. The ticket counter opens at eight in the morning. To get a ticket, one has to be lucky because, often times, all tickets are distributed before it’s your turn and all your efforts go down the drain.
You will have to come back the next day...And face the same ordeal.
Though the hospital counters open at around eight, people start queuing up since six in the morning.. "And some are compelled to return even after a long wait since there is a limit to the number of tickets that can be issued in a day," said Durga Prasad, a security guard at the Tribhuwan University Teaching Hospital (TUTH), Maharajgunj.
Anubha Adhikari, 30, waited in the queue at TUTH for two hours. When she was only a few yards away from the counter, the guard cried out, "Tickets for ENT (Ear, Nose and Throat) for the day are finished."
"Well, I’ll have to come here the next day," the exhausted-looking lady who also seemed disappointed said.
According to Durga Prasad, the majority of patients visiting the hospital are from outside the valley.
Dal Bahadur Nepali from Badasedarbung, Gorkha, has been visiting the hospital for the last three days. The first day, he was in the queue for one and half-hours. The second day, he went there again with an X- ray report but couldn’t meet the doctor. "I was asked to come back the next day," said the ailing man.
The ordeal is twice as painful for those who are illiterate. "It’s difficult when you can’t read and write," bemoaned the 40 year-old who was standing in the line with his wife. "I was running around—here and there— yesterday as I had no idea where the room was. Even so, I was late for the appointment with the doctor."
According to Kundan Satyal, a hospital staff, on average 750 patients are examined in the hospital’s Out Patient Department (OPD) every day. "Hundreds of sick people return without treatment in the summer time because the rush tends to be greater during summer."
The ordeal is even more intense when people infiltrate in the queue. "You stand in line just to get close to the counter, and then somebody else gets infiltrates," said an irate Kamala Lama, who was waiting for her turn. "It’s not fair."
This is the tale of those who come to OPD. There are others who come to the hospitals for surgery; they have to wait for months for their turn. And there are those in need of an emergency operation. Tired of serpentine queues, they have to go to private hospitals that are simply beyond the reach of many.Posted on: 2004-01-21 03:20
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