Public hospitals across the provincial metropolis are still facing the menace of power outages, causing inconvenience to doctors and patients and putting expensive equipment at permanent risk, Pakistan Today has learnt.
Medical superintendents of various teaching hospitals said hospitals were never exempted from power outages; they were only given an alternate connection from a different feeder. However, often power remains shut at both feeders leaving hospitals with no electricity.
Major hospitals facing outages include Sheikh Zayed Hospital, Jinnah Hospital, Mayo Hospital, Services Hospital, Sir Gangaram Hospital, Lahore General Hospital and Children Hospital.
A patient at Sheikh Zayed Hospital said, “Electricity shutdown has become a permanent feature in hospitals. Generators start but the supply is resumed only partially. A number of attendants sit in the corridors and outside wards and the shut down means not only the patients but attendants also suffer. At least hospitals should be exempted from outages.”
Jinnah Hospital Medical Superintendent Dr Afzal Shaheen said doctors also suffer because of continuous power outages. “The generators are there but it only runs some basic departments and wards in the hospitals besides it is also too heavy on the fuel cost…we have already been in talks with the authorities concerned for an alternate power supply and soon it will be done, but until then the power outage schedule remains the same for hospitals as is observed in the other parts of the city,” he added.
Young Doctors Association General Secretary Dr Salmaan Kazmi said, “Patients suffer a lot because it is a total blackout throughout the hospital during power outages. Even if there is electricity in wards through generators, corridors are completely dark, which poses a security risk within and around hospitals.” The problem is not just limited to a few hospitals, it is the same throughout the city, he added.
