A video shot at the Guntur Government General Hospital (Guntur GGH) in Guntur city, Andhra Pradesh, is attracting wide attention and angry comments online for the wrong reasons.
The video which surfaced on 20 December 2022 shows people waiting in a long queue at one of the hospital window counters, for prescription medicines. In the video shot through the open window counter at the hospital, staff of the government hospital can be seen in a large decorated hall, enjoying conversations and food items, oblivious of the time of day and the number of patients/patient attendees, waiting to avail of the government hospital’s medical services.
After what appears to be an unreasonable wait, a man in the long queue outside the hospital, speaks up and questions the staff on the delay in providing hospital services like dispensing prescription medications, even as the queue outside the window counter, continues to get longer because of the delay in service.
The man beckons to one of the male staff members and brings the staff member’s attention to the long queue outside. He says “Sir, please enjoy yourselves later; first, dispense our medicines and the prescribed tablets for our children and other patients. Look at how long the queue is. Do you realize you have delayed the process and the queue is getting bigger?”.
The male staff member takes a look at the man’s prescription slip and guides him to a different counter, to which the man replies that he should have been given the right advice earlier, rather than being made to wait in a long line, while the staff is celebrating inside. A lady staff member walks over to support her male colleague, questions the man and asks him to stop shooting the video. The man tells her to continue explaining while he is shooting the video.
The lady staff member admits that the staff are enjoying a “semi” Christmas party and replies in an arrogant tone of voice, that the delay is not a very long 2-4 hour wait, implying that a government hospital delay of up to 2 hours of providing essential medical services to the poor and needy patients is a reasonable one, even if it is inconvenient to the weaker sections of society.
The man becomes agitated at this statement and asks her to look at how long the queue has grown because of the delay in service, on account of a Christmas party being held at the government hospital, during working hours. Another man in the queue agrees with the complainant and confirms they have been waiting for about 1.5 hours.
The woman retorts in a high handed manner, asking if there are written, published rules against such parties and celebrations, to which the man is heard asking her, if there are rules permitting such parties in the first place, on government premises and during working hours, causing undue distress to patients.
He replies that celebrations should ideally be held outside the government premises and certainly not during working hours, causing huge inconvenience to patients and their families. The man adds that it would be reasonable and helpful if there was somebody at the counter to, at least guide them to other counters. He mentions that the staff should have at least made them aware of what was going on (the celebrations) and how long it would take.
The woman staff refuses to acknowledge the impropriety of partying during working hours and continues to argue with the common man, already frustrated with a long delay. Both the male and the female staff members raise their voices against the man in a bid to intimidate him and ask him to stop recording the incident. The lady staff member (somebody refers to her as Sujatha) arrogantly asks the man if he is there to pick up his medicines or to argue with the staff.
