MADURAI
Government Rajaji Hospital authorities on Friday said that 17 Uninterrutped Power Supply (UPS) inverter units, which were already sanctioned for the hospital, would be installed on a war footing.
Addressing the media here on the alleged death of three patients due to power failure on Wednesday, Dean K. Vanitha and Medical Superintendent (in-charge) P. Raja said that installation of two UPS units at the trauma care building, where the incident took place, was already under way.
Dr. Raja said that while another unit at the cardio-thoracic ward in the main block had already been installed, the remaining units would be installed on a war footing.
The UPS inverter units were delivered to the hospital by the end of February, sources said. Acknowledging that the presence of UPS inverters could have helped in avoiding power shutdown for an hour, officials said that one agency was doing the installation across hospitals in Tamil Nadu, resulting in some delay in the process.
Senior health officials said that a Government Order was passed in December, sanctioning ₹10.97 crore to purchase 164 UPS inverters and 24 generators for hospitals. They would be installed in about 30 district headquarters hospitals, for which the tender process had been completed in some places, and most of the equipment had been delivered. “We are in the process of installing the inverters and generators in many hopsitals,” sources added.
Dr. Vanitha reiterated that the three deaths that happened on Wednesday at the ICU attached to neurosurgery ward in trauma care building were natural and had nothing to do with power failure at the hospital.
While relatives of the three deceased had alleged that the deaths were due to failure of ventilators, hospital authorities maintained that the ventilators worked fine throughout the power-cut because of battery backup.
“There are 10 ventilators attached to each of the 10 beds in the ward. There are also two backup ventilators. All of them were serviced in March and April,” she said. “All the three patients were in extremely critical condition, because of which they unfortunately died,” she added.
She said that all the 2,500 sophisticated equipment, including 164 ventilators, at GRH were properly maintained. She also denied the allegation that there was lack of trained personnel in electrical department and for the maintenance of medical equipment.
