The city has over 22 allopathic civil dispensaries in different sectors, six Ayurvedic dispensaries and four homoeopathic dispensaries, besides nine civil dispensaries in the villages like Mauli Jagran, Kajheri, Dadu Majra and Maloya.

Going by this number, the common man, especially the financially weak, should apparently have little to worry about on the health front. But a round of these dispensaries during the peak hours reveals that all is not well with the functioning of these places.

Many of the dispensaries that this correspondent visited during peak hours had no doctor. He was either out on his own errand, or was on leave. Consequently, the patients were either told to wait or visit again some other day. However, at many other places the patients could be seen lining up to get their slips made.

``I came to the Sector 22 polyclinic five times, but no tests were conducted since there was no one on duty. All officials posted in the lab were either on leave or untraceable. Many patients, including old persons, were harassed and had to go to private clinics for tests,'' says Kapur Chand, a resident of Sector 21.

The patients at the Sector 11 dispensary had to do without a doctor for more than 10 days and were checked by the pharmacists since ``doctor saab family ke sath chutti par gaye hain,'' as an employee told this correspondent. Similarly, the seldom visited and little known Sector 18 dispensary was without a doctor for over a week.

A chat with the patients at these dispensaries revealed that although most of the medicines were available, but many a time the prescribed medicines had to be purchased from medical stores, including even simple medicines like disprin and crocin.