Post News Network
Cuttack: A defunct generator has been causing difficulties for doctors of the cardiothoracic department of the Sriram Chandra Bhanja Medical College and Hospital (SCBMCH) in conducting open-heart surgeries for the last one week.
At least 30 patients from far-flung places of the state are now waiting for the surgery to be done at the premium public health institute, sources said.
During open-heart surgery, doctors keep the heart and lungs of a patient functional through equipment that needs uninterrupted power supply. Any interruption in electricity supply is considered fatal for the patient, SCBMCH sources said. Thus, the operation theatre of the cardiothoracic department requires the support of a generator to ensure smooth supply of electricity even during a power cut, hospital sources said.
The general electricity department (GED) had installed a high-power generator at the cardiothoracic department. However, the generator has been lying defunct for one week,
sources said.
“Private hospitals are charging around `3 lakh for open-heart surgery. Many poor patients from across the state come to SCBMCH for the complex surgery. Now, doctors here are very reluctant to conduct the surgery as the generator is defunct,” said an attendant, Sambit Patra.
A few needy patients had raised the issue with hospital superintendent Pratap Kumar Rath a couple of days ago.Some insiders have blamed the lack of coordination among SCBMCH authorities and GED officials for the generator becoming defunct. “GED officials are yet to hand over the generator to the hospital authorities. Lack of proper maintenance has led to technical snags in the generator,” said a hospital employee on condition of anonymity.
GED engineer Jaydev Sahu, however, said that the generator faced some snags after it was hit by a lightning a few days ago. “We are taking steps to repair the generator at the earliest,” he said.
