Patients and attendants lined up outside AIIMS under the open sky in the harsh cold for prescriptions. Patients and attendants resting away from the cold in the shelter house built by the AIIMS administration. Awakening
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Jagran correspondent, New Delhi. Amidst the dense fog and cold wind piercing the body, patients and their attendants are sitting outside the main gate of AIIMS at 3 am on Friday, spread over blankets on the ground. Some are tossing and turning, some are groaning in pain, some are fighting sleep and waiting for the morning to come.
Similarly, examination of patients and attendants for getting prescriptions and appointments for treatment in AIIMS is done every morning in the bitter cold. The AIIMS administration has arranged for a shelter home for patients and attendants, where there are about 1500 beds, but the irony is that to remain in the queue to get an appointment, people have to leave the shelter and sit or lie down on the cold floor under the open sky.
Anadi Sharma, a family member of a patient who came from Ballia, says that there is a shelter house, but if you go there, you will miss the line. Need treatment, hence have to bear the cold.
Patients and attendants lined up outside AIIMS under the open sky in the harsh cold for prescriptions. Patients and attendants resting away from the cold in the shelter house built by the AIIMS administration. Awakening
The bare floor is as cold as ice. At some places, elders are lying down with their bodies folded, while at other places women are trying to protect their children from the cold by holding them close to their chests. An elderly patient from Darbhanga district of Bihar says in a low voice that do not write the name, you feel scared. What to do if the treatment gets stuck, here the cold is killing you in the prescription line before the disease.
The people sitting around remain silent, but the shadow of pain and cold on their faces tells everything. There does not appear to be any formal token or clear arrangement for night-time prescription. People decide their places among themselves by writing numbers on paper, placing blankets or sheets.
People's trust in AIIMS, which is counted among the largest and most reliable government hospitals in the country, draws them here even in cold waves, strong winds and severe cold. But this picture outside the hospital is raising a sharp question on the health system of the national capital whether the treatment should start under the open sky, shivering nights and cold floors.
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