Massive power cuts ever since the Central Power Distribution Company Limited (CPDCL) started shedding load in the twin cities last week to save energy has resulted Healthcare facilities get paralyzed.
Moreover, on Monday services were nearly paralysed in several government hospitals and small private facilities due to erratic power supply throughout the day with many surgeries being postponed and patients suffering in the extreme heat.
AP Chest and General Hospital at Erragadda had no power supply for a good five hours at a stretch between 9 am and 1 pm leaving authorities severely handicapped. The situation was equally bad at MNJ Cancer Hospital and Niloufer Hospital with power cuts reported every half an hour to 45 minutes, leaving the ailing patients feeling helpless. The area and district hospitals located in various corners of the city too, bore the impact on Monday.
According to Dr Nindra Armugam, resident medical officer (in charge), MNJ Cancer Hospital the situation is very difficult and there were power cuts three to four times and they are treating more than 500 patients daily. During surgeries and radiation, we require uninterrupted power supply, and that they could not give radiation to a lot of patients due to power cuts.
While Dr P N S Reddy, superintendent, Chest Hospital added that the impact was tremendous. Around 200-300 out patients come to their hospital and this is the only major hospital in this area and that X-ray and lab facilities were not available. Frequent power disturbance caused a chaos to patients in the intensive care unit too.
Sadly he added that doctors could not even tell the patients when to come back for treatment due to the uncertainty.
Doctors at hospitals across the city maintained that patients were the worst sufferers due to prolonged load shedding. According to a senior doctor at district hospital, King Koti that they have a generator, but they often run out of diesel as there are budget constraints. As a result of these circumstances, they are forced to postpone elective surgeries and only emergency cases are taken up while he also added that surgeries were mostly taken up twice a week, and due to power cuts, not all surgeries posted for the day were performed in such circumstances.
The doctor added that people come from far-off places and other districts and if surgeries are postponed to next week, living in the city for a week becomes difficult for them. Furthermore, the power cuts are erratic. Officials are saying two hours a day, but they have had three-hour power cuts in the first half of the day on Monday.
Even though Osmania and Gandhi were not affected much, hospital administrators fear the situation might deteriorate in the coming days.
In the private sector, smaller hospitals have started postponing the elective surgeries during non-load shedding hours to cut down their expenditure on generators and diesel.
According to an official from the CPDCL that government hospitals were given an exemption but this year, no such directions were issued from the corporate office while he added that they are awaiting directions.
Prolonged load shedding and frequent power disturbance in hospitals have made life hell for the ailing patients who are feeling helpless and also for the doctors who are facing chaos while treating their patients as a reason that treatment is getting delayed, or postponed.
(AW:Samrat Biswas)
