Sixty-three-old Mahadev Shah has had enough of sarkari (government-run) hospitals. “I don’t care what happens, I’ll go to a private hospital even if I have to borrow money. But I won’t go to Hindu Rao anymore,” he says.
On a hot Friday afternoon, the security guard from Burari left North Delhi’s Bara Hindu Rao Hospital in disgust. Having waited for three hours for medicines, he says those who had paid off or knew the hospital staff were whisked through the chaotic pharmacy up to the elusive window.
Another patient, Suraj Prakash, slowly makes his way out of the hospital. A fractured ankle and a botched up surgery in November last has left the 60-year-old driver from Azad Market in excruciating pain.
“People think that sarkari hospitals might be inconvenient, but at least the treatment is good. The truth is that doctors don’t even listen to us. There is nothing only hassles here,” he says, refusing to get himself photographed for fear of retaliation from doctors.
Like him, thousands of patients who come through the gates of the municipal hospital have to contend with rooms bursting at the seams, lack of medicines and suspect hygiene levels. Black bags of waste lie stacked up in the open, an overpowering stench of urine emanates from the open compound walls, and all the while stray dogs relax in the shade of the hospital canteen.
The central medical store, from where nurses and ward boys pick up prescriptions, is covered in darkness during an afternoon power cut. Cartons upon cartons of intravenous fluids line the walls, from the floor to the ceiling, right next to a jumble of discarded office chairs and rusting desks.
Though there are 14 pharmacists, hundreds of patients jostle with each other to make it to a window before lunch time. Sixty-nine-year-old Ashok Kumar Sahni has just missed it, having waited an hour when the windows were shuttered at 1 p.m. “I don’t know how long it will take, but I just hope I get my medicines,” says the desperate cardiac patient.
The North Delhi Municipal Corporation-run facility is the busiest civic body hospital in the city, with thousands of patients visiting for free treatment every day. The Corporation’s Director of Hospital Administration, Dr. D. K. Seth, admits there are problems.
“We have upwards of 4,000 patients every day and inflexible infrastructure to deal with,” says the doctor. Located next to the ecologically sensitive Ridge and with protected monuments in its premises, the hospital cannot expand with the increasing population. Since no construction is allowed, the compound cannot be closed to the elements, and the canines, adds Dr. Seth.
Patients at Bara Hindu Rao Hospital say conditions at the hospital were such that it would render even a healthy person unwell. “Even healthy people coming to this hospital will return sick,” says Mahadev Shah.
