ISLAMABAD, Oct 25: The federal capital’s major healthcare institutions - the Pakistan Institute of Medical Sciences (Pims) and the Federal Government Services Hospital (Polyclinic) - are without sufficient electricity backup to meet power demand in emergency situations.

The oldest medical facility, FGSH has only three-hour’s electricity backup as the German-made electric generator has completed its life, a source told Dawn on Saturday.

“We have three generators at the FGSH for use during power outages but the main generator has completed its life and cannot bear heavy load,” the source said, adding, “We only have three-hour backup of electricity for the operation theatres and the emergency ward, but if it fails the alternative generator can only work for half an hour.”

He said the third generator, which is a new one, is installed outside the hospital and is not connected with the main OTs”.

The generators have reserved diesel tanks of only 200 litres. “In case we need power generation for a maximum duration we have to switch off electricity to various wards to continue power supply to the OTs and the emergency unit,” he added.

When contacted, FGSH joint executive director Dr Shaukat Kiyani denied that the hospital’s main generator was not working properly and said: “I think there is no major crisis as we have enough capacity to meet a long power outage”.

When asked if they had ever contacted the high-ups for installation of a new generator as the old one was not working properly, he said: “I don’t know the exact date but some time back we did request for a generator.”

Dr Kiyani said: “The only crisis we can face from the generator is that it may damage our equipment in the operation theatres due to load management problem.”

An official of Pims on condition of anonymity said the hospital had a diesel storage tank with a capacity of 10,000 litres, enough to run the operation theatres for a long time, but the authorities buried it saying they did not need such a big tank. An alternative tank was installed bypassing all crisis management rules, the source said.

“One litre of diesel means one minute’s electricity for the hospital operation theaters, and Pims only have 1,000 litres supported tank for the generators which means electricity for 16 hours,” he said.

“There are six power generating units for five major centres at the hospital - burns centre and children’s hospital have their own arrangements; Unit 1 (for main operation theaters and emergency), Unit 2 (for wards) and one unit for the newly-built cardiac centre.”

z all electricity operation depended on continuous diesel supply otherwise the hospital would be left with no alternative arrangements during power outages.

When contacted, Director Engineering Pims Mr Aslam said: “Storage of a large quantity of diesel was risky as well as useless for us.”

The 1,000 litre tanks, he said, were installed in 1984-85 with an idea to run the hospital electricity for maximum duration.

“We have not faced such a major electricity crisis but in case of a crisis we have the capacity to keep the OTs and emergency wards running,” he added.

Regarding burying of the 10,000 litre diesel tank, he said the tanker was still operational but we moved it underground to install an alternative generator, which is not a big issue.”

He admitted that the operation was linked to diesel supply, adding we never faced a shortage in the supply line.