The sufferings of patients, doctors and medical students of Mayo Hospital Lahore and King Edward Medical University (KEMU) have increased manifold with the ongoing construction work of Orange Line Metro Train (OLMT) near Hall Road.
The workers are busy 24/7 in the construction work and the adjacent roads are in complete disarray which is increasing the misery of medical students residing in the hostels of KEMU near Hall Road. Ambulances also have to take the longer route via Mall Road to reach Mayo Hospital. In some cases, doctors and students were seen slipping and falling at the construction site and then going back to the hostel to change their clothes.
Dr Zafarullah, a post graduate trainee living in the hostel of KEMU, told Pakistan Today that the construction work of OLMT is extremely unsafe for the doctors living in the hostels as they have to go to their duties at all hours of the night.
“The surgical emergency starts at 6 am and a doctor working there has to leave the hostel at around 5 am to reach the hospital in time,” he said. He was of the view that an underpass is the need of hour to link the hospital with the hostels. He said the underpass would be useful during emergencies, as doctors would be able to reach the hospital in minutes.
Nausheen Akhtar, a resident of Hall Road told this scribe that she had to shift her ailing relative to Mayo Hospital a few days ago and she suffered a lot during the process.
“The ambulance took the longer route because of the construction work of OLMT and we reached the hospital after more than one hour,” she said, and added that she is not against development but the government should make alternative arrangements instead of leaving the citizens to fend for themselves.
Dr Ali Khawaja, a resident of KEMU’s hostel told Pakistan Today that if a doctor reaches late to his duty, the miseries of patients also increase. “A doctor comes to hospital with a frustrated mind after passing through a mile of mud. How can you expect him to behave courteously with the patients?” he questioned. The government has said that the project would be completed in 2017 and it appears that the patients and doctors would have to suffer through it.
