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Health facilities in Lucknow: Patients must fight heat before they see doctor
These places do not have an arrangement to provide shade and basic amenities to patients and attendants.
It’s 9 am and the weather app on the cell phone shows 34 degrees Celsius in Lucknow and Rakesh Kumar is standing at the 25th place in a queue with 70 others. He is waiting to get an appointment for his father at Lari Cardiology on the King George’s Medical University (KGMU) campus.
Till they reach the OPD hall its dripping sweat all the way. Even in the hall, the fans above spew warm air upon those queued up.
“I came at 8 in the morning and my turn is about to come now,” said Kumar.
Asked about the issue, Dr Sudhir Singh, spokesperson KGMU said, “The new building of the cardiology department is getting ready and soon the OPD counters will be inside the main complex.”
Heat combined with the conditions at the triage area outside Trauma Centre on the KGMU campus also troubled patients. The triage, running under a tin shed, gets hot as the mercury rises.
Manju Agarwal, 65, from Rae Bareli has to use a hand fan while she waits for her son to get a wheelchair to enter the emergency wing.
Meanwhile, a technical glitch in the central air conditioning in the OPD complex forced patients to frequently go out for some fresh air.
“There was a crowd inside the OPD, hence, I had to wait till 12 pm. For the entire time I had to wait outside the OPD building,” said Anurudh Kumar, 46, who came from Sitapur to see a doctor for a problem in the spine.
Similar scenes were witnessed at the OPD ticket counters and emergency wings at other hospitals in the state capital. These places do not have an arrangement to provide shade and basic amenities to patients and attendants.
The Civil Hospital has eight OPD counters. Though the counters are in the shade, yet being open, hot winds trouble those who stand in queue for an OPD ticket.
Sunil Pandey, 33, seeking an orthopaedic surgeon, took half an hour before he could get the OPD ticket. “Waiting for the OPD slip, despite having an online registration, was tough due to the hot and humid climate,” said Pandey.
At TB (combined) Hospital in Thakurganj, there is hardly enough space for 10 patients to stand in queue at the registration counter under the shed while the remaining patients have to stand on the pathway under the sun, in front of the emergency wing.
At the Balrampur Hospital, patients reaching the emergency wing had no other option but to bear the heat. Many were seen waiting for their turn outside the emergency building
Officials at the Civil Hospital said that they were working to arrange facilities. “We are planning to open more counters so that the queue can be shortened. Computers have come and four counters will soon be added to the existing eight in OPD registration block,” said DR Narendra Agrawal, director, Civil Hospital.
Prof Sandip Tiwari, chief medical superintendent, Trauma Centre, said, “Air conditioners have been installed in the triage area and more ACs will soon be installed.”
Emergency wing under tin shed
The emergency wing of the TB Hospital in Thakurganj runs under a tin shed and has three coolers, one of which is not working.
According to experts, TB patients are kept in properly ventilated rooms but in case of hot climate, air conditioners can be used but also adequate ventilation has to be maintained for airborne infection.
The guidelines for airborne infection control by the directorate general of health service, New Delhi, state, “Minimise solar heat gain through proper use of sunshades or external shading.”
Prof Rajiv Garg, senior faculty member, respiratory medicine, KGMU, said, “Air conditioners can be used for TB patients with the rider that ventilation is maintained, or high-quality filters are used for controlling the spread of infection. In fact, air exchange devices are the best solution as they change the entire air inside a room every hour.”
