E-Paper
Power outage disrupts surgery at government Rajindra hospital
This is not the first time that such an incident has happened at the hospital. Last year in July, doctors and support medical staff of the hospital had to perform a Caesarean section or C-section under the flashlight of mobile phones due to a power outage.
The doctors at the Government Rajindra Hospital, a tertiary healthcare medical facility, on Friday, had to halt surgery due to the disruption of power supply to the operating theatre (OT) of the emergency wing.
The incident went viral on social media after a junior doctor uploaded a video. In the video, the doctors were seen discussing contingencies as the patient, who was on a ventilator, was shifted to a Ambu bag, also known as a bag valve mask (BVM) or manual resuscitator.
The doctors also claimed that in case the power isn’t restored, the patient’s life might be in danger. The doctors claimed that the power supply was restored after 10-15 minutes. HT couldn’t independently verify the veracity of the video.
Punjab health minister Dr Balbir Singh acknowledged that the power supply was disrupted for only a few minutes, and backups, including UPS (uninterrupted power supply) and generator, worked seamlessly.
“The operation was successfully conducted, and the patient is recovering well. The power disruption was only for a few minutes, and it was restored after a short while. A local (internal) electricity fault led to the disruption in the power supply. The UPS and generator functioned seamlessly during the disruption. There are multiple electricity backup systems at Rajindra Hospital. We have three hotlines to the hospital,” the minister said.
The minister added that the junior doctor, who was part of the surgery team, panicked and made a video.
“A young junior doctor panicked in the situation. Normally, a doctor, in such situations, will make efforts to ensure the electricity supply to the OT is restored, but he started making a video. He shouldn’t have done this. Sometimes, doctors panic and make wrong decisions,” the minister added.
This is not the first time that such an incident has happened at the hospital. Last year in July, doctors and support medical staff of the hospital had to perform a Caesarean section or C-section under the flashlight of mobile phones due to a power outage.
The opposition was quick to latch on to the incident and slammed the Bhagwant Mann-led Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) government in the state over ‘poor’ medical facilities.
Union minister of state for railways Ravneet Singh Bittu, in a post on micro-blogging site X, said that the deteriorated condition of medical facilities and electricity, the two things AAP promised to perfect, has come to the surface in a painful event.
“A surgeon of Rajindera Hospital had to come on camera to issue a disclaimer that due to fault in electricity, a patient might lose their life during surgery in the OT. CM and his ministers have deserted Punjab and shifted to Delhi just to please their dictator Kejriwal. But at what cost?” Bittu added in the post.
The Punjab Congress also took on X and slammed the AAP government for failing to provide basic healthcare facilities to the people in the state. “It was not the first such incident to have happened at Rajindra Hospital. Punjab CM Bhagwant Mann’s tall claims of providing world-class health care facilities had fallen flat,” Punjab Congress said in a post on social media.
Shiromani Akali Dal national spokesperson, Parambans Singh Romana also tweeted and said, “This video speaks volumes of the healthcare system in Punjab.”
