Ratlam (Madhya Pradesh): A six-hour power cut at Government District Hospital on Sunday morning brought emergency services to a halt, exposing the failure of the hospital’s backup generator, which has remained non-functional for nearly a year due to non-payment of diesel costs and lack of maintenance funds.
The power supply was cut from 6 am to noon. During this period, admitted patients were left in distress as hospital operations came to a standstill. The computerised system crashed, the laboratory stopped functioning and the X-ray machine could not be operated. Patients in the ICU faced difficulties as ECG machines and monitors could not be turned on. The water motor also failed, disrupting supply across the premises.
Although the OPD was closed due to Sunday, admitted patients faced severe hardship. The condition of the hospital’s electrical infrastructure was also found to be alarming, with cables hanging loose near the distribution panel, posing a serious risk of an accident.
'Govt has not paid for diesel for past one year'
Civil Surgeon Dr MS Sagar blamed the power company for the outage. On being asked why the backup generators were not used, he said the government has not paid for diesel for the past one year and there is no budget for generator maintenance, leaving the backup system non-functional.
