MADURAI: Two days after three patients admitted to the Trauma Care Centre of the Government Rajaji Hospital (GRH) died allegedly after the ventilators stopped functioning following a power outage, the hospital began to install Uninterruptible Power Source (UPS) systems starting Thursday. Medical Superintendent (in-charge) Dr P Raja said the hospital was sanctioned UPS systems to provide power backup about three months ago. Notably, the systems lay idle at the hospital for over two months.
A hospital source told Express that the sanction of 17 UPS systems, each with a capacity of 15 kilo-volt-ampere (kVA), to the GRH was part of a statewide sanction of the power backup devices to government hospitals. Of the 17 devices sanctioned to the hospital, 15 were earmarked for the main block of the hospital and two for the Trauma Care Centre (annexe block).
The UPS systems are to be provided mainly to the wards such as Neonatal Intensive Care Unit (NICU), Intensive Medical Care Unit (IMCU) and Intensive Respiratory Care Unit (IRCU) that are equipped with ventilators, sources added. It is said that a ventilator requires about one kVA of power to function, and, in the case of a ward with three ventilators, each ventilator would last up to five hours using a UPS with a capacity of 15 kVA.
Ward number 101, where the three patients (all of whom were on life support) died during a power failure, had seven patients on ventilators. Going by the extent of power backup provided to ventilators by a UPS device, each of the seven ventilators would have functioned for over two hours, despite the malfunction of both the generators on the fateful evening. After lying idle at the hospital since the end of February, two UPS devices were first installed at the annexe block on Thursday. Wiring to install the remaining systems at the main block is underway. It is likely to be completed in a week’s time, said another hospital staff.
Speaking to Express, Health Secretary Beela Rajesh said that she was waiting for a report on the extent of installation of UPS sanctioned to hospitals across the State. Commenting on the incident, she said that based on the final report, to be submitted by the GRH Dean in a week’s time, a decision to form an inquiry committee would be taken.
HC seeks report on incident from government
Madurai: The Madurai Bench of the Madras High Court sought a report from the State government on the incident, wherein three patients died during a power outage at the Government Rajaji Hospital. A Veronica Mary approached the Court stating that on May 8, between 6.20 pm and 7.20 pm, three patients M Malliga, P Palaniammal and K Ravindran, admitted to the ICU, died due to failure of the ventilators. She claimed that the deaths were due to sheer medical negligence, and the condition of most hospitals in the State was similar.
The petitioner sought for a direction to initiate action against persons responsible for the deaths and provide compensation to the families of the deceased. She wanted the court to direct the government to constitute a special team of electrical engineers to inspect all the government medical college hospitals in the State to ensure the quality of alternative power generators and provide uninterrupted power supply to all government medical college hospitals. The Court adjourned the case to May 29.