A woman fans her son, a patient at SCB Medical College. Picture by Badrika Nath Das

Cuttack, June 11: Sudhakar Samal from Jajpur is undergoing treatment at S.C.B. Medical College and Hospital, but like many other patients he had leave his bed to step outside the ward and spend time in the open under a tree. As the city today reeled from long hours of power cut, patients at the SCB Hospital found the humidity and the heat too much to bear.

“Since morning, we have been sitting outside the ward because of power cut. As there is no alternative power supply, it is very difficult to remain inside the ward because of humidity and lack of proper ventilation,” said Sudhakar.

The brother of Shayama Bhoi of Keonjhar had met with an accident. Shayama had brought his brother to the hospital for treatment but the power cut prolonged his trauma.

“There is no alternative power supply arrangement at the S.C.B. Medical College and Hospital. We were unable to get a CT-scan done on my injured brother,” said Shayama.

The situation was worse in the hospital’s psychiatry department which was visited today by a committee of the Orissa High Court. The committee expressed concern over lack of measures for alternative power supply at the hospital during power cuts.

Hospital authorities, however, claimed that adequate steps were being taken to provide alternative power supply to run emergency services and departments at the hospital.

“We have initiated measures to provide alternative and uninterrupted power supply at the intensive care units, casualty department, trauma department, gynaecology department and other wards through generators,” said the hospital’s emergency officer B.N. Moharana.

Electric supply officials maintained that there was a power cut to carry out maintenance works of the distribution network.

They also said that prior announcements and advertisements regarding the scheduled power cut were published in advance.

“Today, there was a power cut for around six hours for ‘pre-monsoon’ maintenance, which is a routine affair. Moreover, prior announcements were made regarding the power cut,” said CESU general manager (electrical), Cuttack circle, N.K. Mishra.

Mishra said repair and maintenance of line and distribution network and primary substations was carried out jointly by the Central Electricity Supply Utility (Cesu) and the Orissa Power Transmission Corporation Limited (OPTCL) today.