WARANGAL: Despite increasing the number of consultation counters at the Government Ayurvedic Hospital here, the rush of patients has not abated. Most patients have to wait in queue for a long time to get an appointment, but their worries don’t end there.
There has been an acute shortage of medicines at the hospital, forcing patients — who come from as long as Chhattisgarh — to buy them from private pharmacies.
The hospital’s OPD is thronged by up to 170 patients every day who come for Ayurvedic treatment. “When there are no medicines at the hospital, the patients are forced to look for other places for treatment,” said a patient who was waiting in the queue. “I would have also done the same if I could afford it,” he said.
The 100-bed hospital has sophisticated equipment, infrastructure, and other facilities for its various departments — general medicine, Panchakarma, Shalya (general surgery), Prasuti Tantra Stree Roga (gynaecology & obstetrics), Bala Roga (paediatric), and Shalakya (ENT and dentistry).
Requesting anonymity, the staff of the Government Ayurvedic Hospital, Warangal, said that paralysis and piles of patients, who come here for treatment, leave here disappointed as most of them do not get the medicine.
“We have requested the higher authorities to provide sufficient medicine supply several times, but in vain,” said a staff member. Narrating his ordeal, M Rajaiah, a patient from Warangal who had come to the hospital for the treatment of paralysis, said, “First, it took hours to get doctor’s appointments.
When we got the prescription and went to the hospital pharmacy to get the medicines, there was a huge queue. We waited for a long time again only to be told that the medicines were not available.”
Paralysed?
A staffer at the Ayurvedic hospital said that paralysis and piles of patients leave disappointed as most of them do not get the medicines they need