Staff Correspondent
Port Blair, April 01: Shortage of parking space at the lone referral hospital of these islands, GB Pant Hospital, is taking a toll on patients and relatives alike. Thousands of patients along with their attenders visit the GB Pant Hospital daily for treatment of various ailments. But due to the acute shortage of parking lots, relatives accompanying the patients are forced to face hardships after standing in a serpentine queue in sweltering heat for over two hours. To add to the woes, the available space near the Cold Mortuary has been kept closed for unknown reasons. As a result, relatives are forced to leave the patients alone at the hospital to search for a parking space far from the hospital.
“The available parking space at GB Pant Hospital is inadequate in comparison to the number of out-patients the hospital attends every day. The parking lot has the capacity to accommodate only 30-35 vehicles whereas hundreds of two-wheelers and four-wheelers arrive at the hospital on a daily basis. Owing to the predicament, relatives accompanying patients have to search for alternative places far from the hospital to park their vehicles,” said a resident Bhatu Basti.
“The Health Department should immediately embark on measures to ensure adequate parking space for vehicles at the GB Pant Hospital. The available parking lot should be converted into a double-storeyed facility to accommodate more vehicles at the available space. Instead, the hospital authorities are currently working on shrinking the space in the available parking lot. Such unwarranted exercise should be done away with in the interest of patients and constructive steps should be taken to ease parking woes at the hospital,” says some others.
