LUCKNOW, July 30 -- Plastic bottles lined up outside the new registration hall of the Ram Manohar Lohia Institute of Medical Sciences (RMLIMS) convey a tale of high patient volume and struggle. Attendants use these bottles as makeshift tokens to mark their place in the queue and spend the entire night guarding them to get inside the hall on a first-come-first served basis when the counters open in the morning. The institute, which has a footfall of around 4,000 patients every day, also sees many patients from other UP districts and Bihar arriving a day before and queuing up the same way, jostling for registration. The bottles bear the name of patients and entry into the hall is guided by their sequence, said patients in queue. "We have to guard these bottles as the serial numbers of these bottles also serve as the token number to stand in queue inside the registration hall that opens around 8am. A delay in getting front position in the queue will delay treatment," said an attendant. Missing this bottle system means either the turn of the patient comes very late or he/she might not even get a registration. Sanno Begum, 58, of Bahraich, has been visiting the OPD of the institute for eight years for treatment in the neurology department. Every time this patient comes, she has to follow the same procedure by keeping a water bottle in queue so that she can enter the new registration hall. Saroja, 30, of Gonda, said she is visiting Lohia institute for the very first time for treatment in the neurology department. She came to know about 'bottle queue procedure' after reaching the hospital. "So I am also following the same. It enables you to get the registration number early," she added. Media spokesperson of RMLIMS Dr Bhuwan Chandra Tiwari said: "Placing bottles outside the registration hall is not the official procedure for registration. It might be a 'self made system' by patients and their attendants."...