CHENNAI: Causing distress to hundreds of inpatients and attendants at Kalaignar Centenary Super Specialty Hospital, the authorities have disallowed the use of both lifts near the main entrance to access the third and fourth floors during outpatient hours, which is until 2 pm.
Though the management said the restriction was put in place for the benefit of outpatients and doctors, it has inconvenienced the senior citizens who are admitted to the wards on the third and fourth floors and their attendants.
Those in need of reaching the top two floors until 2 pm are diverted to lifts 3 and 4 located on the backside of the hospital housed on King Institute campus in Guindy. Inpatients who take the lifts 1 and 2 will be dropped off at the second floor and they have to walk over 100 metres to reach the other lifts that witness huge crowds. The restriction won’t apply to wheelchair users.
“Even after pleading with the lift operator to drop me on the third floor because of my heart condition, he wouldn’t budge. I was already feeling giddy owing to the tests and the long walk added to the distress,” said 64-year-old Thilakavathi.
A 75-year-old woman whose son has been hospitalised said there was no way she could walk along long corridors to access lifts or use the stairs. So, she takes help from kind attendants of other patients to obtain food, test reports or medicine from downstairs. There are outpatient units and emergency units on the first floor and scan and other diagnostic test facilities on the ground floor.
When contacted, hospital director Dr L Parthasarathy told TNIE that the restriction concerning lifts was put in place so that attendants of the huge number of inpatients don’t disturb the activities of outpatients, doctors, and emergency patients.