Patiala hospital at it again, patient under knife amid power outage

One of the premier health facilities of the region, Rajindra Hospital, is in news once again for a wrong reason. A surgeon operating upon a patient had a harrowing time as electricity in the operation theatre went off.

The surgeon recorded the incident on his mobile phone and shared the video with his colleagues, saying who would be held accountable if something happened to the patient.

In the video, junior doctors were seen stating that it was not the first incident of power outage in the main emergency ward of Rajindra Hospital.

“It has been 15 minutes since power went off. How do we perform the surgery? If something happens to the patient who would be held responsible. The patient is intubated and the ventilator has stopped functioning. Such is the situation of a facility where there should be a hotline,” a doctor stated in the video. Medical Superintendent Dr Girish Sahni could not be contacted despite repeated attempts.

The video went viral and the matter snowballed into a political controversy with BJP leader and Minister of State Ravneet Singh Bittu taking a dig at AAP convener Arvind Kejriwal over his claims of quality healthcare facilities in Delhi and Punjab.

Later in a video message, Health Minister Dr Balbir Singh said, “There was an incident of power tripping. I had a word with the medical superintendent and doctors. They told me that the operation was successful and the patient was safe and recovering.”

He claimed, “A young doctor panicked. Normally, the reaction should have been to find the cause of power outage and look for a technician. Instead, the doctor started recording a video. Sometimes wrong decisions are made in panic. Nevertheless, we will look into the matter as the incident should not have taken place.”

“After a previous such incident of power cut, CM Mann immediately released funds and got installed two more hotlines at the hospital. Presently, there are three hotlines in the hospital for uninterrupted power supply. There was a local-level fault in the operation theatre, which was rectified. The UPS, generator and other emergency equipment functioned properly. I would urge all not to escalate the issue,” the minister added.

Earlier in July last year, doctors at the hospital had to perform a caesarean section using a mobile flashlight following a power cut.