Govt hospitals - Operations performed under torchlight

Work in Govt hospitals disrupted due to power cuts 

   No generators in more than 50% of the hospitals
    Even if there are generators, there is no money to buy diesel
    Operations done even under candle light
    Govt doctors have taken to sending the patients to private hospitals
    Incubators, warmers, and laboratories do not function
    Patients sweat and suffer in the heat as fans do not run
    Occasionally, treatments are given outside the hospital building where patients are given saline under the trees
    Expensive vaccines getting spoiled, because refrigerators don't work

 
The power outages in the state are showing hell to the patients in Govt hospitals. Operation theatres and labs are in darkness. When emergency cases are admitted, the operations are being done under candle light.
In the children’s wards, photo therapy, and therapy in incubators has come to a stop. Costly vaccines for polio, tetanus, T.B., mumps,  rabies, and snake bites, which are kept in now, non-functioning refrigerators and coolers, are getting spoiled, adding to the woes of dearth of medicines in Govt hospitals.
 
There are some hospitals installed with generators, but there is no budget for the fuel required to run them. Sakshi surveyed the District hospitals, Area hospitals, and Primary health centres in the state. It is same sad story everywhere. There are some doctors who are advising the patients to go to private nursing homes as they are not able to do any operations or give treatment due to lack of power.

State of hospitals in a few districts:

Chittoor District
Generators have become decorative pieces - there are 94 Primary Health Centres in the district with generators. But there is no indication that they are in use, because the Govt has not sanctioned any budget either for their diesel or repairs.  The officials say that they need Rs 2 lakhs to put all the generators to use.
 
Kurnool District
The Electricity Dept cut the power to a few Primary health centres because they did not pay the bills.  All the Primary health centres  in the District along with the District Health office owe the Electricity Dept, 46 lakhs arrears . The Electricity Dept cut the power to them declaring them as defaulters. Power was restored to some Health Centres on the request made by political leaders but there are still 18 Health Centres for which there is no power.
 
Nalgonda District
There is a power cut from 1pm to 5pm in this town. 69 women came to get family planning operations. The operations started at 2p.m. in the afternoon, and as soon as they were over the generator was switched off. The women who got the operation done suffered due to heat and lack of air.
 In a Narsampet hospital, preparations for a delivery operation started at 8am for Rajani, but the power was cut suddenly, being restored only at 12 noon, causing great agony to her.

Khammam District
All the family planning operations in the 29 agency mandalams came to a stop due to power cuts.
Mosquitoes swarm the hospitals as there are no fans, and the heat becomes intolerable. Generators do not work in the villages because there is no budget for repairs.

- Sakshipost