Chennai: Outpatients made to wait for long hours in government hospitals

Chennai: Lack of a separate screening facility block for out-patients at government hospitals has not only made the waiting period for them longer, but has forced many of them to go back without screening. Many patients from districts like Tiruvallur, Kancheepuram and suburban areas have to wait for more than 8 hours to get screenings like digital x-ray, Doppler, mammogram and ultrasound scans done.

While hospital authorities express their helplessness, patients demand a separate block for screening of out-patients. G Revathi, a kidney patient came from Tiruvallur to the Rajiv Gandhi Government General Hospital (RGGGH) to get a Doppler scan done after being referred from a public health center in Tiruvallur.

Unable to walk or sit properly due to illness, she had to rest on the floor for eight hours to finally get examined by the technicians. S Raghavan, a patient from Nellore in Andhra Pradesh had to seek shelter in the hospital premises of the RGGGH for two days only to get a digital x-ray of his foot. He was asked to come the next day for the x-ray scan due to unavailability of doctors after 1 pm.

In another instance, S Devi from Kancheepuram became unconscious at the RGGGH after having waited at the digital x-ray block since 5 am in the morning to get doppler scan done only at 4 pm in the evening.

Several other patients at the hospital go back without getting screened as they are made to wait for more than 4-5 hours. The screening block for the mammogram, Doppler scan, ultrasound and digital X-ray is common for in-patients and out-patients at RGGGH.

While in-patients are immediately scanned, outpatients wait for hours. Patients allege that only 10 out-patients are screened in three hours, despite having waited from early morning. “We travel from far off places to the government hospital on the recommendation of doctors from suburban areas that lack basic screening facilities. However, we are forced to stay in the hospital premises for more than a day,” said Raghavan, a patient at the hospital.

When contacted, hospital authorities say that inpatients are prioritized at the overcrowded government hospital, but out-patients are also followed up. Though there is no lack of staff, out-patients are seen in large numbers every day. A separate block for outpatients will be considered to resolve the issue, they said.