Health services take a hit in Chandigarh due to power crisis

Tribune News Service

Naina Mishra

Chandigarh, February 22

Health services in the city were hit owing to power outage. Even though city hospitals are equipped with power backup, a long cut of seven to eight hours made hospital authorities to prioritise patients.

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Consequently, routine surgeries were postponed, new admissions were not made and patients were asked to get their tests done from outside.

Pooja (28) from Nayagaon, who had been waiting for a knee surgery at the Government Medical College and Hospital (GMCH), Sector 32, for a month, had to return as she was told that the scheduled surgery will not take place today. “Due to the power cut, the surgery was cancelled. I have been conveyed that a new date will be given after 10 days. My knee surgery was already delayed due to the Covid pandemic,” said the patient.

Rohit Pal, who was admitted to the surgery ward, shared that he broke his arm and legs on falling from stairs. “My surgery was scheduled today but couldn’t be completed due to power issues. I will have to wait for some more days now,” he said.

A doctor at the orthopaedic ward of the GMCH-32 said only one operation theatre (OT) was functioning out of the total four for the department. This would lead to a delay of 12 days in scheduled surgeries.

At the GMSH-16, CT scan and X-ray machines were not working during the morning hours.However, it was restored in the afternoon.

Suman Singh, Director, Health Services (DHS), UT, said, “The hospital was running on power backup since 5 am and the electricity was restored at 1 pm. We had to shut down operation theatres and stop taking new admissions because we wanted to keep the services available for emergency cases, as there was no clarity on when the electricity supply would be restored.”

“The dispensaries and civil hospitals, being smaller facilities, couldn’t cope with power cut. Doctors at civil hospitals and dispensaries were found reading prescriptions with mobile torches. All emergency cases were being asked to be referred to the GMSH-16 emergency wards as the diagnostics were not found working in these smaller health facilities,” said the DHS.

Services at private hospitals were hit too. Dr RS Bedi, former president of IMA, said, “We had prioritised and only attended to patients requiring critical care. If this continues for another two days, the health care will collapse and patients will suffer.”

Surgeries drop by 58 per cent

The GMCH-32 used to carry out 36 surgeries in a day. Due to power outage, only 15 surgeries took place on Tuesday. At the GMSH-16, only one emergency operation theatre and the gynae labour room were operational. There are a total of five OTs at the hospital.

PGI prepares contingency plan

“We are coordinating with the UT Administration to ensure uninterrupted power supply to the institute. The SE, Electricity, has been deputed at the 66-kV substation. For critical areas, we have DG sets as a backup. We are monitoring the situation to ensure that no hospital service is impacted,” said PS Saini, superintendent hospital engineer, PGI.

At GMCH, 25 elective surgeries deferred

After the power snapped at 2 am, generators at the GMCH-32 were switched on. All critical areas and other clinical areas didn’t face any problem as they are all connected to supply from generators. As a precautionary measure against overloading the system and in the interest of patients’ safety, over 25 elective surgeries scheduled for Tuesday were postponed.

Vaccines shifted to maintain temperature

The GMSH-16 immunisation officer was tasked with shifting some batches of vaccines to other health facilities in order to maintain the temperature and prevent spoilage. Vaccines are required to be stored in refrigerator at a temperature between 2°C and 8°C.

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