The patients and their near ones who throng daily in their thousands Doon Medical College Hospital have been grappling with grim drinking water scarcity at the facility. The taps have been dry for the past few days. When this correspondent visited the premier hospital of the State around noon on Wednesday he found that two tabs near medicine shops and labs were non- functional. The patients and others who were coming to slake their thirst were found returning distressed.
In a hot and humid weather on Wednesday noon, the patients were found lining up in queues for hours for their turn to reach the doctors.
Many were seen distressng over basic facility of drinking water, which was not available in the hospital premises and had to be fetched from the market.
A security guard employed at hospital said that the taps have been non- functional for the past one week. “I bring bottles of water from home. We have no idea when the dead taps would come to life again,” he said.
The guard further confided that one could go to Indira Amma Canteen located in the facility to quench thirst. “However, the problem is that it shuts after a sometime. The patients visiting during the night hours suffer the most when the canteen is closed,” he said.
One Ramesh Bisht, resident of Sahaspur, was found making his way to the canteen to quench his thirst. “My relative is admitted at the hospital. I purchased bottles of drinking water yesterday for myself. But someone told me that it is available here for free. Hence I have come here. The sun is hot. I am extremely thirsty,” he said.
Jogiwala resident Urmila who came to the hospital along with her father who was down with high fever vented her anger over non-availability of drinking water in the hospital premises. “It is unthinkable. People are coming in their thousands down with fever with dengue prowling on and there is no running tap to slake thirst. We can hardly afford to purchase bottles from the shops. Where would we go if things continue to be soIJ” she asked.
Asked for comment on the water scarcity ordeal stalking the hospital, CMS KK Tamta said that he had directed the officials concerned to repair the taps two days ago. “As far as I can remember, taps worked on Tuesday,” he said. However, the stories this correspondent heard from the sufferers ran contrary to his memory.