Patna, April 8: By the time it is 7 in the morning, the serpentine queue outside the radiology department of Patna Medical College and Hospital disrupts vehicular movement to and from the adjacent wards. Lucky few in the queue manage to get an X-ray or ultrasonography (USG) done on themselves or their dear ones the same day. Others leave for another day.

Distressed, poor and often uneducated people impatiently keep waiting for the registration counters to open to get their or their kin’s X-ray or USG done. Their restlessness grows every minute. But there are few others — the touts — keenly watching their targets. One look at them, and you know who they are and what they are up to.

When The Telegraph asked for assistance from a guard to get an X-ray done on a patient as soon as the process started, he suggested taking help of the touts.

“You need help, approach them,” a guard, who identified himself as Akhilesh, suggested The Telegraph, pointing towards a well-built man.

“When is your patient going to arrive?” the tout asked.

Learning that the patient would be in the hospital in an hour or so, he said: “Aapka kaam ho jayega, bas payment decide kar lete hain (your work will be done, let’s decide the fee).”

“If you pay Rs 250, your patient will be the first one to be under the X-ray machine this morning after the counter opens at 9. I can guarantee you that,” he said.

Others, overhearing the conversation, approached him requesting for his favour. “Everyone’s work will be done today. Give me your prescriptions and the money. Remember, you can get the tests done outside but the authenticity of this centre is unmatched — be it X-ray or USG,” he said.

Several people in the queue took out money, pleading the tout to bring down the rate. Within 30 minutes, several deals were sealed — some for USG, others for X-ray.

A guard said those who paid to the tout would be the first ones to get diagnosed after the counter opened. “They will be tested on priority basis. Their registration slips will be handed over to them as soon as the counters are opened and they will be called for the tests before others,” he said.

Right he was.

The radiology department, where 800-1,000 patients line up for X-ray or USG everyday, is under the grip of touts, right under the nose of the hospital administration. As the poor patients or their relatives cannot afford the diagnosis outside, they choose to pay Rs 100-Rs 500 to the touts and get the tests done with the connivance of the employees in the department, said sources.

Umesh Kumar, who had come from Araria to get his wife tested for lumps in her breast, said the doctor had asked him to get an USG done. “Every day they (technicians) conduct tests on 200-300 patients. Several people in the queue return without getting the tests done. There is a mad rush every day and people start queuing up since 6am. I queued up for three days but never reached the registration counter. So, I decided to pay a tout Rs 300. The test was done in a few minutes,” he said.

The PMCH administration expressed its helplessness in taming the touts. “I know these things are happening here and that the touts are hand-in-glove with the employees but we do not have any evidence against them. On one occasion, I myself caught hold of a tout and handed him over to police but he was released for the want of evidence. Even if people pay these touts, they do not testify against them,” said Dr R.K. Singh, deputy superintendent, PMCH.