Gangtok Government Hospital introduces wait in lines (1966)

Pic: Internet

I have always tried my best to be among the first few lines while visiting a doctor in a hospital. But on many occasions, I don’t have any option but to be in a long-standing queue.  It is a very interesting finding I got to read in the old Kanchenjunga magazine dated 1966 of Gangtok Government Hospital about the wait in lines.

Some six decades back there were no wait lines in hospitals as we see these days.  People from far places of Sikkim used to drop at Gangtok Government Hospital at any hour of the time and make haywire for the doctors and the hospital staff.

It was in the month of July-August in the year 1966; a new rule was brought into practice by the Royal Durbar to set up a proper wait in lines for the visiting patients at the hospital for medical check-ups.  It was also made into practice that personal records of the illness of patients should be kept in the hospital itself.  It was also directed to the Hospital authorities that Prince Tenzing and his brother would do regular inspections of the new rule.