During night hours, patients unendingly wait for doctors at LD

At Government Lalla Ded Hospital, patients literally have to wait for hours to get a glimpse of a doctor who can attend to them. Worse enough, the patients being referred from different Sub District Hospitals (SDHs), after reaching Lalla Ded, are left unattended for hours together.

This reporter is a witness to the fact that in Causality Block, there are only two doctors who are attending to a huge rush of patients during late hours, especially from 5 PM onwards.

This reporter met a number of patients who have been waiting for their turn for hours, and it seemingly, was quite difficult for only two doctors to attend to the increasing patient rush during the night hours.

Abdul Rehman, a resident of Beerwa, Budgam, accompanying his daughter was seen waiting for the consultation for more than two hours, he said that “I came here at around 4 PM, since then, I am waiting, nobody is attending to my patient, and the rush of patients is only adding up.”

His daughter had complained of labour pain and was rushed to SDH Beerwa, and from there she was referred to Lalla Ded Hospital, however, she had to only wait till the doctors could actually see her.

The scene is same every day after 4 when most of the doctors get ready to leave, and call it a day. Patients are seen running here and there, in search of more doctors who would attend other patients, waiting in causality, to be attended.

Among the two doctors who were seen attending the rush of patients, one was doing the documentation, and the other one was attending to the patients, thus, there was literally only one doctor who was attending to more than 50 patients.

For Medical Superintendent (MS),  Lalla Ded Hospital, Dr. Nazir Malik the matter was normal, hours long wait was also normal, “given the nature of cases that are referred to this hospital, doctors have to thoroughly examine the patient and that sometimes takes time, with the result, others have to wait for their turn,” he says.

When asked if the hospital is facing shortage of doctors during the night shift, the MS did not agree and said that “there is no shortage of doctors.”

The statement of MS is contrary to what has been witnessed on ground, the messy affair of consultation during night hours is giving a tough time to the patients who have to travel a good deal before reaching to Lalla Ded, and even after that they are subjected to ridicule and bashing.

 

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