- By Akansha Pandey
- Sat, 30 Aug 2025 04:23 PM (IST)
- Source:Jagran News Network
Patients at the ESIC dispensary in Sector-57 are being forced to wait in long lines for hours just to get medical treatment. These long waits are also leading to arguments and disputes among the patients.
A patient named Sajid, who was standing in line for a registration slip, explained the problem: "There is only one counter open for both making registration slips and giving out medicine. Because of this, people have to stand in line for hours for their turn. Even if you get in line at 8 in the morning, it takes one to two hours to be seen." After getting the registration slip, patients have to wait again in another line outside the doctor's cabin. Patients are facing huge difficulties due to these endless queues for treatment, but the officials in charge are completely silent on the problem.
It's important to note that this dispensary gets between 700 to 900 patients every day. According to the rules, there should be six doctors posted here, but currently, only four doctors are treating patients. This number often drops to just three, and they are overwhelmed by the large number of patients.
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The doctors say they are under a heavy workload, as each doctor has to see 100 to 150 patients a day. In such a situation, it's becoming difficult to provide proper treatment to everyone. Many times, people see the huge crowd and just go home without getting treated. Due to this shortage of doctors, patients often have to be referred to the main ESI hospital in Sector-24.
What the Patients Are Saying:
Digambar Jha, a patient: "I got in line at 8 AM and finally got treatment after an hour. You have to stand in a line for everything at the dispensary – to get medicine, to get a registration slip, and then to see the doctor."
Ajay Pal Singh: "Waiting in line at the dispensary just makes your illness worse. If there were two separate counters for registration and medicine, we wouldn't have to suffer like this."
Rabina, a patient: "My daughter has a high fever, and we have been standing in line for so long that her condition is getting worse. It would have been better to just go to a private doctor."
Akshat Singh, a patient: "The number of doctors at the dispensary should be increased so that people can at least get treatment. There's no staff at the counter, which is causing long delays in getting medicines."
When the Dispensary Director, Dr Sangeeta Mathur, was called on the phone to comment on the mismanagement at the Sector-57 dispensary, she hung up without even hearing the full question.