Patients having tough time due to power cuts

KANPUR: The patients admitted in Upper India Sugar Exchange Maternity Hospital, an associate hospital of Ganesh Shankar Vidyarthi Memorial (GSVM) Medical College, are bearing the brunt of continuous power cuts for the past three days. Fed up with the lax attitude of the hospital authorities, the attendants have now started shifting the pregnant women to other hospitals for safe deliveries.
Reportedly, due to a fault in the underground cable, the power supply of the hospital was disrupted three days back.And the situation has not improved yet.
The condition can be gauged from the fact the junior resident doctors are using torches and emergency lights for the check-up of the patients and preparing their reports.
The worst affected are the patients admitted in the labour and general wards. More than 50 pregnant women and those who have recently delivered their babies are having a tough time as fans and lights are not functioning due to erratic power supply.
Jyoti Singh, a patient from Vinyakpur who is admitted in the labour ward-one for the past nine days, said, "The condition is getting worse day-by-day. There is no electricity. Dirt and litter is spread everywhere as class IV employees are not visiting the wards due to non-availability of electricity. There is no arrangement of inverter or generator."
The condition at post operative ward is better as generator facility is available there.
Generally, females who have to undergo operations to deliver their babies are admitted in this ward. According to sources, 111 patients are admitted in the hospital presently and 81 infants were born within the past week.
Moreover, the working of pathology labs has also been affected.
A official said, "Approximately 3o tests which were to be done on Saturday were put on hold due to power cuts. There are more than 33 pathology tests which require 24 hours of electricity for preparing the final reports. Computers and various equipment like centrifuge machine and advanced microscope are just lying defunct due to power failure."
Chief medical superintendent Dr Anshu Mishra said, "What can we do if there is any fault in underground cable line. Workers are trying to find the fault for the past three days. It is expected that soon the electricity problem will be solved."