Shuttle service can solve traffic mess on PGI campus

Dr Suman Kochhar

When I studied and later worked as a faculty member at the PGI in Chandigarh in the 1980s and ’90s, the movement of traffic inside the campus was hassle-free and well regulated. No stray vehicles were allowed inside the campus and patients and attendants could commute easily. We, the doctors, were able to freely walk to the research block and the laboratory block to expedite patient care and work related to our thesis, with relative ease.

During the extremely busy residency days, grabbing a quick bite at the doctors’ mess, which was across the road from our main hospital block, was a difficult feat owing to less time at hand, but we managed it somehow most of the days.

However, today, different blocks seem to be so distant that it would not come as a shock if a patient referred from the OPD block to the cardiac centre collapses on the way. Rickshaws and auto-rickshaws plough on the inner roads of the hospital, which was a taboo in the past.

The risk of accidents, too, has increased. Unruly traffic within the campus has made the once clean and patient-friendly hospital look shabby. The main inner road now resembles a busy market street. The traffic outside the campus is worse and the parking lot for patients extends to the nearby sectors and the outer boundaries of Punjab Engineering College.

The situation has come to such a pass that one has to keep a margin of about half to one hour to park the vehicle. 

Doctors have to frequently shuttle from one place to another on any given day. Quick morning rounds of wards, OPDs and operation theatres and at times attending to referrals from the Emergency are some of the daily tasks a doctor has to take care of. And, the departments are located nowhere near to one another.

They have to rush for classes and seminars too. In the process, and with so much of patient load, they skip meals also. And, the limited parking space adds to the woes. Once a car is parked at a particular place, they mostly walk down to other destinations, irrespective of the weather, in addition to loss of man hours.

  Though patient attendance in the PGI has increased manifold over the years and many new buildings and blocks have come up, things can always be controlled.

A shuttle service can be started within PGI, with about 10 pre-fixed stops where the shuttle would come at definite intervals of 10-15 minutes. For this, two-three mini-buses or tempo-travellers or vans can be brought into service daily from 6 am to 6 pm, reducing the number to one after these busy hours.

The shuttle can start from the main hospital entrance, then go to the Emergency and ward area and can complete the cycle clockwise by going to various blocks, advanced paediatric centre, cardiac centre, eye centre, OPD, common fee collection centre, PGI entrance towards Sector 11 and then back to station one, with clear instructions displayed at each stop.

If the PGI can’t afford the vehicles, philanthropists would be too eager to donate.

Patients and their attendants can get dropped at the hospital entrance and be ferried to their destinations within the hospital without the need to bring personal vehicles.

This would not just reduce traffic inside the hospital but save everyone’s time. To top it all, doctors and paramedical healthcare staff, too, can use the same service to commute.

Over the years, it could be streamlined to become a role model for busy hospitals.

(The writer is Professor & Head, Dept. of Radiodiagnosis, GMCH-32, Chandigarh)