Normal services resumed at the NRS Medical College and Hospital on Tuesday following the withdrawal of ceasework late on Monday but the problems patients face at government hospitals remain unabated.
More than 2,000 patients were treated at the outpatient department (OPD) and over 200 admitted on Tuesday, officials said. The OPD at NRS reopened for the first time on Tuesday since the junior doctors went on strike a week ago — June 11 — to protest the assault on two interns after the death of an elderly patient there.
But for patients’ families, the harassment of standing in long queues for hours, getting a wheelchair or having to push trolleys themselves was same like before.
Relatives of patients said it was beyond the doctors to address these issues but such harassment often led to violence.
Santi Haldar, who is unable to walk because of an infection in her feet, was sitting on the stairs of the emergency department while her father and husband were looking around for a wheelchair. They failed to find one at the trolley booth outside the emergency unit where wheelchairs are supposed to be kept.
Doctors in the emergency ward advised Santi’s family to take her to the dermatology OPD. “She needs a wheelchair but there is not one here. We have to take her to the second floor,” her husband said.
The family members finally got hold of a trolley and helped Santi get on it with much difficulty. While the patient’s husband and mother pulled the trolley, her father carried their bags and prescriptions.
Lack of infrastructure was felt even on a day the patient count at the OPD was less than usual. “We treated around 2,100 patients at the OPD today. On an average, around 3,500 patients turn up at our OPD on a weekday,” said an official, who attributed the lower turnout to an assumption among patients that it would take at least a day since the withdrawal of the ceasework for things to fall in place.
Another pet peeve of patients’ families was the guards’ insistence that more than two persons would not be allowed to accompany a patient inside a ward or the emergency department. On Monday, chief minister Mamata Banerjee had said during the meeting with junior doctors at Nabanna that not more than two persons should be allowed with each patient inside a hospital.
Relatives of patients, however, said two persons were hardly enough given the volume of task they have to perform.
“You need two only to handle the trolley. Who will take care of the prescriptions? Besides, we are often required to buy medicines and supply them to nurses,” said a man whose father is admitted in the UNB Building of NRS and awaits brain surgery.
“When my father was advised a CT scan, we had to arrange a trolley to take him to the scan unit and sign a declaration that we would be responsible if anything untoward happened to him while he was away from the ward. We had to push the trolley ourselves, take it down to the ground floor and to the CT scan department.”
While speaking about the need to restrict the number of persons accompanying a patient, the chief minister had also stressed how crucial the role of family members was.
The two person-per-patient rule has been in place for long but rarely followed. Officials said it would be enforced from now.
Patients’ families said they would welcome the rule if the government offered help in arranging medicines and getting the pathological tests done.
Dipak Saha, whose relative is admitted at NRS with a tumour in the abdomen, said patients depended on their family members even for visiting the washroom. “I have to take my relative to the washroom thrice every day. He waits for me as he cannot walk on his own,” Saha said.