Bathinda: A patient’s relative had to remove his car battery and use it to start a genset after a power outage plunged Gidderbaha civil hospital into darkness in the middle of a surgery last week.Gidderbaha Civil Hospital senior medical officer (SMO) Dr Rashmi Chawla, when contacted, termed the incident a “temporary technical fault” and said it was corrected in less than 15 minutes. A video of the July 10 incident has since gone viral, drawing criticism over emergency preparedness at government health facilities in Punjab.According to an eyewitness, the power supply failed while an operation was under way at the hospital in Muktsar district.The hospital generator could not be started immediately as its battery was not charged. Seeing this, a relative of the patient undergoing surgery went outside, removed the battery from his car and connected it to the generator set, after which power supply was restored.Dr Chawla said the power supply had failed only for a few minutes. “When hospital staff tried to start the generator, it was found that the battery was weak. Another battery was arranged, which restored electricity supply. We have inverters in operation theatres and the genset is working now,” the SMO said.
