SANGAREDDY: At Patancheru Government Hospital on Monday, the cellphone flashlight briefly became part of the medical kit. A power outage in one of the wards left doctors treating patients by torchlight, turning what should have been a routine hospital shift into an exercise in improvisation.
The incident has raised questions over the persistent power issue, particularly in the Health minister’s native district, and whether senior officials are checking conditions on the ground rather than relying on reports from headquarters.
Responding to the concerns, Hospital Superintendent Dr Sudharani said frequent power disruptions were due to ageing wiring.
“Proposals for new wiring were submitted, but no funds were sanctioned. I have been on leave for 10 days, and doctors had to treat patients under torchlight on Monday,” she said, adding that repairs last month also failed to resolve the issue.
The issue eventually caught the attention of Health Minister Damodar Rajanarsimha, who reportedly expressed anger over the failure to maintain proper power supply at the hospital.
He reprimanded officials and questioned how they could be negligent over an issue that could have been easily fixed.