BALANGIR DISTRICT HEADQUARTERS HOSPITAL. TELEGRAPH PICTURE

Balangir, Oct. 12: The district headquarters hospital here is in the news for the wrong reasons. There have been two cases of fans falling on the bed of the patients in less than a week’s time in the gynaecology ward of the hospital.

A woman and her newborn child had a close shave as a wall-mounted fan fell on their bed today. The woman and her newborn daughter however escaped and neither was hurt in the incident. Less than a week ago, on October 6, a ceiling fan had fallen on a patient’s bed in the same ward and a woman was injured. Her newborn, however, escaped injuries.

Sources said poor quality of construction of the building had taken a toll on the gynaecology ward of the district headquarters hospital here. Moreover, the building is not maintained properly.

Padmabati Bag had given birth to a baby girl two days ago. The incident occurred today morning when both the mother and daughter were sleeping in bed No. 25 at the gynaecology ward.

“Suddenly I heard a strange sound from the fan over my head and before I could do anything the fan fell on the floor. Fortunately, it didn’t fall on the bed,” said Padmabati.

After the October 6 incident, the administration had taken an initiative to remove some of the ceiling fans in the ward and replace them with wall fans. But a similar incident was repeated this morning as the wall fans were not fitted properly.

After today’s incident, all wall fans have been removed from the ward. Narendra Pradhan, an attendant of a patient at the ward, said the condition of the building was deplorable. “The building is in a very bad state. Recent rain has made its condition worse. The wall of the ward is wet due to water seepage, making it unsafe. While the construction is of very poor quality, the maintenance also leaves much to be desired,” he said.

Chief district medical officer (CDMO), Dr Bikrant Kindo, admitted that two fans falling within a span of six days was matter of concern. “As a preventive measure, we have removed all the wall fans which were fixed after the first incident in which a ceiling fan had fallen. Earlier, we had also removed some ceiling fans. We are taking steps to fix all the ceiling fans in a proper manner so that such incidents do not occur,” Kindo said. The CDMO, however, didn’t make any comment about the deplorable state of the building.