Queue ordeal: When patience is on test more than Covid
LUCKNOW:Around 11.45 am, Vinod Shekhar’s (name changed on request) cell phone buzzed. It was a text message from Lucknow’s Sanjay Gandhi Postgraduate Institute of Medical Sciences (SGPGIMS) suggesting that his Covid-19 report was negative.
The message arrived three days after he had collected his Covid-19 report from the new diagnostic block of the premier medical institute.
“More than my Covid negative report, what makes me happy is the fact that the institute’s text message facility that wasn’t functional for a while is active again. It would save many the ordeal of standing in long queues, sans social distancing, for hours at times to collect the report,” Shekhar said.
But even as the text facility is functional, it would lessen just one queue. For, as an eyewitness said, the run-up to taking the Covid test is an elaborate, cumbersome, frightening and frustrating affair. As of now, Covid-19 testing is a tiring day- long, on occasions, even longer, affair. At SGPGIMS, for instance, one has to queue up at least five times, across three days, to get a Covid test report.
“That’s because the rush for admission and treatment in SGPGI is very high,” a health official explains. While the state’s healthcare system and infrastructure is gradually being beefed up to meet the growing need and demand for Covid-19 tests, the government claims that tests have been scaled up to 15,000 per day and are aiming at 20,000 by the month-end.
On the ground, there are many like Shekhar, who, are by now, used to a familiar, taxing drill to know their Covid status.
After clearing the thermalscan queue, they have to line up for another one – this time to collect the ICMR form in which they are required to fill in their details.
“Standing in the queue itself is a frightening experience because at the time of taking the test none knows their status and there are asymptomatic cases too. At least I haven’t come across any social distancing there,” he said.
The time spent in the queue depends on the number of people queued up for the ICMR form – anything between 30 minutes in a best case scenario to several hours, according to eyewitnesses. One is now required to report near a bank’s lounge on the campus adjacent to the new OPD block where again there is a queue and a couple of hours are exhausted.
“All this is physically taxing. Mentally too, the exercise drains
› The rush for admission (of patients) and treatment at SGPGIMS is very high. A HEALTH OFFICIAL
you out. As it is there is great fear of catching the dreaded infection,” said the eyewitness requesting anonymity.
“After waiting for a while, someone collects our details one by one and we are called in a phased manner inside a room for collecting throat and nasal swabs,” the eyewitness said. A day is done by now.
If the SMS facility is working, it saves a patient the ordeal of visiting the new diagnostic block on the campus to face the ‘dreaded queue’ for the Covid report.
“When the text facility wasn’t functional, I had to go to the institute to collect the report. There, in the new diagnostic block, I came across used gloves and masks, hair and an empty beer carton. I forgot to click it but it’s ok. I have realised that unless you are a VIP, procuring a Covid-19 test report is nothing short of an ordeal. And, I am not even blaming anyone because I know the system is overstrained,” the eyewitness said. A Covid test report is valid for 14 days, the time calculated from the day the sample is taken. This means the same drill has to be repeated if one has to a see a doctor again after two weeks.