HYDERABAD, Aug 1: Routine work as well as major surgeries are getting seriously affected in Civil Hospital Hyderabad as hospital administration is not being provided duplicate source of power supply by Hyderabad Electric Supply Company (Hesco) despite completion of required formalities including payment of demand note by the hospital.

And since power breakdowns of longer and shorter duration are frequent in these days in the city, provision of dual power supply has become all the more important for hospital which caters to a large part of interior of the province.

Like Karachi, complaints of power outages and erratic electric supply continued to increase during summer. The need of additional supply of electricity has become essential ever since the establishment of different wards, leading to increase in electricity load but Hesco is delaying in providing alternate source of power.

Hospital sources told this correspondent on Wednesday that required work for wiring and erecting of poles had been completed, but Hesco employees said that load was required to be shifted from the area from where duplicate power supply was to be provided to hospital.

“But it was the case over two months back when we were told by Hesco employees that load will be shifted in a fortnight. Now more than two months have passed but alternate power supply is not provided to us”, said a hospital source.

Currently, the hospital gets power supply from Hirabad sub-division - one of the worst effected sub-divisions of power utility in terms of electricity supply - while Hesco plans to provide both the power supply connections to hospital from Sarfaraz sub-division.

The Hesco intends to provide one source of energy through Qasimabad feeder which will be fed from Qasimabad grid station and this source will be available for emergency use like power breakdown in Sarfaraz sub-division.

Important as well as sensitive health facilities like Intensive Care Unit (ICU), burns ward, additional gynaecology operation theatre, private wards are some of new wards, established in hospital during the last several years and the hospital had been demanding dual power supply for past many years for smooth functioning of wards and operation theatres.

The hospital caters to needs of large number of patients from Hyderabad and lower and upper districts of Sindh province as safe estimates, obtained through hospital sources, in just one year the number of patients in OPD was recorded at 795,179 while 211,369 patients reported to casualty.

The number of indoor (admitted) patients is 40,502 while bed occupancy stood at 293,367 while 60,155 operations were conducted and 890,557 patients got different pathological investigations done. Around 1,700 cases of dog and 94 of snake bite were reported to hospital, besides 5998 delivery cases.

In addition to it, 120,161 patients’ x-rays were done and cases of C.T.Scan were recorded at 2311 while ultrasound tests in 55,790 cases was provided.

Such figures are enough to reflect rush of patients in hospital which still needs expansion.

It is the second facility after Karachi in Sindh which has a separate burns ward. In critical cases, patients are referred to this hospital from areas like Tharparkar, Mirpurkhas, Umerkot, Larkana, Nawabshah, Naushahro Feroze, Jacobabad, Badin, Thatta etc.

Power breakdowns have become more frequent and over 35 hours of load-shedding was recorded in hospital during last month which is moderate, otherwise power cut elsewhere in the city remains on a higher side. The hospital is located in Hirabad sub-division that has excessive load.

Operation theatres (OTs) and burns ward are equipped with air-conditioners which become inoperative when hooked up on generators. Generators could only supply necessary electricity supply to less heavy machinery, installed in pathology laboratory work.

Doctors at the hospital believed that uninterrupted electricity supply is necessary for patients especially those admitted to ICU and burns wards.

“In burns ward, people with more than 50 per cent of burns wounds are admitted as germs-free environment is essential for them.

They always have lesser chances of survival but when load is shifted to generators air-conditioners don't work and patients complain of burning of their wounds which really is painful for them”, said a concerned doctor.

“Same is the case with ICU patients where patients are kept on artificial respiratory system”, said a doctor. Hospital administration has been pursuing the matter vigorously but lackadaisical approach by Hesco officials to such an important issue is delaying the matter.

Reports indicate that since hospital doesn't have sufficient budget for fuel expenses, it also made matters worse for them to keep generators working for longer duration on a regular basis.

Hesco employees said that since dual power supply is to be provided from Qasimabad feeder, some load of that area is to be shifted to other area so that hospital could get immediate electricity supply without any hindrance.

But perhaps the load has not yet been shifted by the power utility and hospital's power supply issue remained unresolved.