Bengaluru: Why was the premier government-run Minto Eye Hospital without power for nearly 36 hours starting Sunday evening, risking the lives of tens of patients recovering from surgery?
Caught between the increasingly inept BESCOM and a PWD that has been kept out of handling this hospice, doctors struggled to cope in the dark, putting off critical surgical procedures and turning away patients.
Relief came only at 3 am on Tuesday after a glitch in the transformer on the hospital campus was set right. For over 100 patients, mostly from the poorer sections, the glitch meant they had no recourse to treatment.
“It is a very old building and we have been trying to run the show with the help of generators. We only had power supply for the OT,” said Dr Chinamyee J.T. of Minto Hospital. 50 surgeries were performed on Tuesday after power was restored.
“Both the hospital and Bescom are to blame for the power disruption. The fuses in the transformer are gone. The maintenance department is understaffed. We have one estate officer, one electrical engineer and one technician when we need a full-fledged team,” they said.
