The Doon hospital witnessed a huge rush of patients here on Monday as more than 2,600 new patients were seen registering for the various Out Patient Departments (OPD).
The festivity of Diwali, last week, resulted in a huge dip in the inflow of patients as only 400-600 patients visited the biggest hospital of the State during this period.
The nearly six fold increase in the patient on Monday have resulted in chaotic situation in the hospital. long serpentine queues were witnessed at the registration, billing counter and medicine distribution counter OPDs, and other places of the hospital.
Anita Kumari a resident of Bhagat Singh Colony said that she is waiting for more than two hour at the medicine counter of the hospital. She was of the view that the hospital authorities should make additional arrangements on the days when more patients visit the hospital.
When contacted the Principal Medical Superintendent (PMS) of Doon hospital Dr RS Aswal said that the increase in the number of patients on Monday was on expected lines as patients load tend to increase in the days after the festival and holidays. He said that the hospital deploys additional staff at registration and billing counter when the rush of patients increases.
The staff and medical officers of the hospital informed that usually the patients do not prefer to visit hospitals during the festival season. Most of the patients who visit the OPDs are the patients of fever or other infections and they tend to delay their visit to the hospital during festivals as their diseases are not of serious nature. The patient load in the coming days however is slated to be reduced as winters have set in and in the jargon of doctors this time is called as healthy season.