Patna: Reaching Patna Medical College Hospital (PMCH), one of Asia’s largest govt medical institutions, has itself become an ordeal for patients seeking treatment. Outside the hospital’s old Ashok Rajpath gate — still the main access point for most visitors despite the opening of a new gate on the Marine Drive side — roads are riddled with potholes, traffic snarls, metro construction debris and encroached footpaths. Inside the campus, ongoing redevelopment has left several roads uneven and difficult to navigate. Monsoon showers have only worsened the situation, forcing patients, attendants, hospital staff and ambulances to negotiate muddy, waterlogged stretches every day.The road leading to the old PMCH gate on Ashok Rajpath, among the busiest access points to the hospital, has become a major bottleneck. The gate now serves as the entry and exit point not only for PMCH but also for the Indira Gandhi Institute of Cardiology and, over the past few days, Darbhanga House because of metro construction work.Rita Kumari, who travelled from Bhagalpur with her ailing mother for treatment at the OPD, said their e-rickshaw almost overturned on the damaged road outside the hospital. “My mother is unwell, and it was extremely difficult to manage her through the jolts. We came here hoping for treatment, but even reaching the hospital became an ordeal,” she said.Aniket Kumar, who had accompanied his pregnant wife for a routine check-up, said the problem continued inside the campus. “The new OPD is on the other end of the complex, and the internal roads are just as bad as those outside. Rain has turned the entire campus muddy because of the ongoing construction. I was constantly worried my wife would slip and fall. It is a serious safety hazard and not what one expects from a premier medical institution,” he said.Hospital staff said the problem had persisted for months. “Construction debris and mud from the redevelopment work are left on the roads after work ends. Even a 10-minute spell of heavy rain floods the campus because of poor drainage. Our white uniforms are splattered with mud every day, and patients and their attendants are forced to walk through slush,” said Bithika Biswas, a nurse who has served at PMCH for more than a decade.A worker engaged in the redevelopment project said bringing JCBs, bulldozers and other heavy machinery through the old gate had become increasingly difficult because dug-up roads and encroachments had narrowed the carriageway. A security guard, requesting anonymity, said repair work rarely lasted. “Even when the roads are repaired, the work is of such poor quality that within a month they are back to their original condition,” he said.PMCH principal Dr Geeta Sinha acknowledged the difficulties and said the hospital would request repairs to internal roads before the monsoon intensified to ensure the smooth movement of patients, staff and ambulances.Geeta also blamed encroachments beneath the double-decker structure outside the old gate for worsening traffic congestion and sanitation. She alleged that despite PMCH paying Rs 15-17 lakh annually to the civic body towards property tax and garbage collection, waste was not being removed regularly, leaving garbage piled up outside the gate and at several places inside the campus.“We often have to deploy hospital staff to dispose of the garbage ourselves,” she said.
