To facilitate patients,PGI authorities planning to merge all fee counters

If the plan works,which is at a conceptual stage out,thousands of patients at PGI will be spared undue harassment.

At present,there are two separate fee counters,one for laboratory tests and other for X-ray,Ultrasound,MRI,CT-scan and other radiology tests. In most of the cases,doctors ask the patients to go for a number of tests,which include both laboratory as well as radiology tests.

A patient has to first stand in a long queue to deposit fee for various lab tests and then he again has to stand in line to pay for radiology tests.

Mohammed Hasan-ullah,a resident of Meerut is undergoing treatment at PGI. While talking to Newsline he said,“It is difficult for me to stand for long,as I have hurt my leg in an accident. In PGI,nothing is easy first I had to stand in queue for payment of fees. When my turn came,the cashier told me that for X-ray I should to go to another counter. Why can’t they take all the fees at the same counter? Why to trouble patients unnecessarily?”

While patients are a harassed lot,PGI authorities are not ignorant of the issue. “It was decided in a meeting that the fee counters will be merged into one.

“We have sent the details to the MS office and the matter is being worked out by senior officers. We hope in future patients does not have to face the harassment,” said Sushil Thakur,financial adviser,PGI.

Talking about the other steps being taken by the department to facilitate patients,he added,“We have increased the number of fee counters in the new OPD. Earlier,there were only four counters,but now the number has been increased to nine. The ninth counter is on the fourth floor and is open till 4:30pm,while others close at 3:30pm.”

He said,the department has also planned to put queue managers in front of every counter to manage the excessive rush.