Waiting room to bring relief to patients, kin visiting pharmacy

The pharmacy at the Civil Hospital always witness a huge rush of patients. A lone pharmacist assisted by a group of students are taking care of providing medicines to patients.

Keeping in view long queues and unmanaged crowd of patients outside the pharmacy, which result in inconvenience to them and those coming along with them, the Health Department has now decided to construct a waiting room. Daily on an average, 2,000 patients visit the hospital as it is one of the major government health institutions of the district.

Medicines are given free of cost due to which a huge rush is witnessed at the pharmacy window of the hospital. The worst affected are patients coming for consultation and children and the elderly. The decision has been welcomed by patients and their kin visiting the hospital.

As per the plan, a waiting room will be constructed near the main gate entrance of the hospital in place of the cycle stand and the estimated cost to be incurred on the same will be Rs 25 lakh. According to officials, 300 people can be able to sit in the waiting room. There is also a plan to relocate the pharmacy window.

Sunita, who had come to the hospital on Saturday, was seen helpless among the crowd in getting medicine. “It took me one-and-a-half hour to get the medicine. There is a huge rush of people jostling each other to reach the window. I had to get the medicine for my daughter. She was also feeling unwell while waiting for a long time,” she said.

It is difficult to understand the dosage of medicine amid a huge crowd.

"I cannot read as I am illiterate and I could not understand a single word about the dosage. Now, I will again have to wait for hours to see the doctor to understand the dosage,” said Geeta, a patient from the Tajpur Road area.

According to Senior Medical Officer Harpreet Singh, the summer season is approaching and they intend to construct the waiting room by March so that people waiting for those who had gone to pharmacy for getting medicine did not have to wait in the sun.

“At present, there is a shed outside the pharmacy but that is proving inadequate and a waiting room will prove beneficial. It will also be beneficial for those who have to wait for OPD patients and reports and other reasons,” he said.