Visiting PGI a nightmare

Chandigarh, July 24
Even as the PGI has remained the only premier health institute in the region for the last 50 years, visiting it has proved to be a nightmare for a majority of patients or their attendants.
In addition to standing in long queues for hours at different departments, they are compelled to walk almost a kilometre to get a blood sample tested or procure a ‘no dues certificate’.
Attendants of indoor patients admitted to Advanced Eye Centre, Cardiac Care Centre, Advanced Paediatric Centre and the Nehru Hospital building, requiring the diagnosis of endocrinology blood samples, are first need to go to the laboratory on the third floor of the research block B, located at a distance of over half a kilometre.
The harassment of the attendants does not stop here. The fee for this test is to be deposited at the fee counters at the Nehru Hospital building, which is situated at a distance of over 200 metres. The long queues at these places only exhaust the patience of the already harassed attendants.
For getting a discharge slip one is required to get a ‘no dues certificate’. And to get this certificate, attendants, including elderly persons, are expected to walk all the way to the Nehru Hospital building. And they can count themselves lucky if they are asked for a photocopy of the certificate, for which they would have to walk further to the adjoining building of the new OPD. With no effective internal transport system available, the attendants have no option but to walk the long distances, even in inclement weather.