Probe ordered into power outage at Patiala hospital

Health and Family Welfare Minister Dr Balbir Singh has ordered an inquiry into the sudden power outage in an operation theatre at Rajindra Hospital in Patiala on Friday.

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The minister visited the 66 KV substation at the hospital on Saturday and reviewed the situation. Thereafter, he held an emergency meeting with the Director (Distribution) of the power corporation, Chief Engineer and other engineers of the electrical wing of the Public Works Department and examined all aspects.

In view of the seriousness of the issue, no negligence would be tolerated and a thorough investigation would be conducted into the incident, he added. The incident has come as a major embarrassment for the ruling AAP. In poll-bound Delhi, Union minister Ravneet Singh Bittu took potshots at the AAP’s health model.

Dr Balbir Singh said the power corporation and the electrical wing of the Public Works Department were examining power supply arrangements for the hospital and no negligence would be tolerated. He said there should be no compromise when it came to arranging UPS, generator sets and replacing power line etc.

He said CM Bhagwant Mann had made it clear that there was no shortage of funds for ensuring better healthcare services to the people.

He said Rajindra Hospital was being developed as a postgraduate training institute on the lines of the PGI, to make it better than corporate hospitals. In July last year, he had got an additional 11 KV line installed at a cost of Rs 25 lakh to ensure uninterrupted power supply at Rajindra Hospital, he said.

The electrical wing of the PWD has also been instructed to run another 11 KV feeder line from Shakti Vihar and install a ring main unit (RMU) on the line coming from the Pasiana feeder within a week.

The minster blamed the previous governments for the poor arrangements at the hospital. He said the doctors who continued treating the patient despite power outage during the operation deserved appreciation, but the act of the doctor who panicked and made a video, instead of handling the situation, could not be appreciated.

Principal Secretary (Health) Kumar Rahul; DRM Dr Avnish Kumar; Director (Distribution), PSPCL, DPS Grewal; Chief Engineers RK Mittal and RL Mittal; Chief Engineer of the electrical wing of the Public Works Department Vijay Kumar Chopra; Supervising Engineer Vikas Gupta; Executive Engineer Parmjit Singh; and some other officials were also present on the occasion.