An Eye-Opening Picture of Mayaganj Hospital's Healthcare System; Women Visiting for Ultrasounds Face Severe Hardships, Patients Fall Prey to Administrative Apathy Ranging from Registration to Long Queues
Bhagalpur, Chief Correspondent: The state of affairs at Bhagalpur district's largest government hospital—Jawaharlal Nehru Medical College and Hospital (JLNMCH), locally known as 'Mayaganj Hospital'—has once again come under serious scanner. On one hand, the government makes grand claims about modernizing and streamlining healthcare services in hospitals across the state, but the ground reality appears to be entirely the opposite. Pregnant and other female patients visiting the hospital specifically for medical tests are facing massive mismanagement. For highly essential tests like Ultrasounds, women are forced to endure endless long queues outside registration counters and testing rooms from morning till evening, exacerbating the suffering of patients.
What Is the Core Issue? The Inhuman Scenes Outside the Ultrasound Room
Outside the radiology department and women's ward of Mayaganj Hospital, a deeply distressing and chaotic scene unfolds every morning. Hundreds of women arriving from distant rural areas (such as Banka, Katihar, Purnia, Godda, and various blocks of Bhagalpur), including a large number of pregnant women, arrive to undergo ultrasounds to check the health status of the fetus or diagnose other severe ailments.
However, the saga of struggle that begins upon reaching the hospital exposes the callousness of the health department:
Long and Unregulated Queues: Women are forced to stand in long lines before sunrise just to get a registration slip and wait for their turn for an ultrasound. Often, despite standing in line for hours, once the doctor's scheduled time ends, they are turned away for the next day without undergoing the test.
Complexity of the Registration Process: Due to poor coordination between online and offline registration, patients struggle immensely at the counters. In the absence of a streamlined token system, stampedes and disputes frequently break out in the queues.
No Provision for Seating or Rest: There are neither adequate benches to sit on nor proper arrangements for drinking water and shade outside the ultrasound room for pregnant women who travel long distances while fasting or exhausted. Consequently, many women faint and collapse right on the floor.
The Pain of Patients and Attendants Spills Over
A rural attendant who arrived at the hospital premises with his wife expressed his anguish, stating, "We have been standing in line since 6:00 AM, but until 1:00 PM, the slip hasn't been issued. The doctor says today's quota is complete, come tomorrow. A poor person cannot afford tests at a private facility, and yet we are subjected to this humiliation at a government hospital."
Experts believe that timely ultrasounds during pregnancy are absolutely essential for the safety of both mother and child. If tests cannot be conducted on time, identifying emergency conditions promptly becomes impossible, often putting the lives of mothers and newborns at stake. Despite this, the hospital administration proves utterly failing in taking any concrete and permanent steps in this direction.
Private Diagnostic Centers Flourish, Poor Patients Fall Prey to Economic Exploitation
The biggest beneficiaries of these long queues and mismanagement at the government hospital are private diagnostic centers and middlemen (brokers) active in the city. Lurking outside the hospital gates, these brokers cajole women and their families by claiming, "You won't get a turn at the government hospital today; get your ultrasound done immediately and cheaply at an external private lab." Out of sheer helplessness, poor patients are forced to drain their hard-earned savings—often by taking loans—at these private centers where arbitrary fees are extorted.
A Vast Gap Between Official Claims and Ground Reality
From time to time, the district administration and hospital superintendent make grand claims about streamlining operations at Mayaganj Hospital, but ground realities expose these claims. Despite no shortage of machines, operator sluggishness, lax management styles, and a lack of monitoring keep testing capacities restricted, causing crowds of patients to swell continuously.
The plight of women seeking ultrasounds at Bhagalpur's Mayaganj Hospital serves as a living testament to the apathy of the healthcare apparatus. If the hospital administration fails to take swift steps such as increasing the number of counters, making the token system transparent, and arranging proper seating and resting areas for pregnant women, this mismanagement could escalate further. Providing basic healthcare services to patients must remain the administration's top priority, ensuring that no woman is forced to endure such inhuman suffering due to a lack of treatment.
