Shillong Residents Frustrated by Ambulance and Hospital Delays

Shillong: Shillong emergency healthcare is failing. Citizens report sluggish response times and persistent delays despite heavy government spending on infrastructure. Residents are fed up. A recent incident saw an elderly patient wait over 40 minutes for a 108 ambulance after being told the unit at Civil Hospital was occupied. Help finally arrived from Lawmali instead.

One local questioned the capacity of the current fleet. "Don’t we need more 108 ambulances to attend to patients in Shillong, or is the government attending to all emergencies in the city with just three ambulances?" the resident asked. The problems continue inside hospital walls.

A stroke victim waited over an hour for a doctor at a private hospital. Medical staff often struggle in cramped, congested emergency wings while facing a constant flood of patients. Residents admit the blame does not rest solely on doctors or nurses. These bottlenecks drive patients to seek faster, cheaper, and more reliable care in hospitals outside the state.