Patients spend hours on road

Patients spend hours on road Akash Ghai
Tribune News Service

Mohali, July 30
The power failure today exposed the “ill-preparedness” of the Civil Hospital in Phase 6. Soon after the power shutdown at around 2.15 am, the entire hospital complex, except the emergency ward, plunged into darkness in the absence of power back-up.

Several persons, including patients, came out of the hospital and sat on the pavement.

“It was very dark inside the building. I could not bear it. So, I stepped out,” said Jaswinder Singh, an attendant to a patient.

Another attendant, Jeet Singh, claimed that they had to go to a private hospital located nearby for the patient’s check-up as there was no power in the Civil Hospital. “Even in the emergency ward, the staff did not bother to start the generator as soon as the power went off. It was started only after the intervention of a senior doctor,” he claimed.

Dr Rajiv Bhalla, Senior Medical Officer at the hospital, admitted that there was no power back-up in the wards. “The hospital is connected with the hotline. Since the grid collapsed, the crisis was unexpected,” he said.

The staff had already apprised the authorities concerned of the need to have a generator with at least 60 kv-100 kv capacity.

Dr Bhalla said though work was affected today, six surgeries and two dialysis were performed.