Services suffer as PGI faces power failure

Health services suffered at the Post Graduate Institute of Medical Education and Research (PGIMER), Chandigarh, on Sunday due to a snag in the power supply. The electricity supply to the hospital remained affected for several hours. The worst-hit were some areas of the Nehru hospital, including emergency.

According to sources in the institute, the power played truant at around 8.30am and for the next three hours, various areas, including emergency, private rooms and haemo-dialysis unit were without electricity. The power failure started on Friday, when one of the transformers of the hospital conked off following a short circuit.

Due to failure in power supply, three blocks of the Nehru hospital were severely hit. It affected all the services in the hospital, where there was no provision of emergency backup.

The electricity wing of the institute could restore the power supply in the afternoon.

Sources in electricity wing of the hospital said the electricity infrastructure of the Nehru hospital was quite old and the power load had surpassed the limit it could handle capacity, leading to frequent snags.