Cuttack, May 25: As if the sweltering heat were not enough, decrepit fans and dysfunctional ventilation channels have compounded the miseries of hundreds of patients and their attendants at SCB Medical College and Hospital.

Most of the wards in the hospital lack proper ventilation channels and old ceiling fans that need to be repaired or replaced have made the summer heat almost unbearable.

The fans are too weak to cool the patients and their attendants. Patients at the orthopaedics department, which is always crowded, are having the worst time.

“The fan near my bed stopped working on Sunday and the heat has been unbearable since then,” said S.K. Arif, 18, a patient from Balasore.

It has now been almost 20 days since Arif began undergoing treatment at the orthopaedics department. Arif said the electric board at the ward was not functioning either. These days this mother fans him with a handheld fan.

“It has been only a couple of days since an attendant in the ward repaired the electric board and fan. The hospital authorities have taken no steps to fix the fan,” said Muturi Bibi, Arif’s mother.

Many of the patients are using portable fans to beat the heat, as the ceiling fans have not been able to bring them any respite from the heat.

“The fans make a lot of noise as they are old. We are afraid they might fall on the patients, as a ceiling fan had fallen in the gynaecology department recently,” said Mahendra Barik, an attendant from Jagatsinghpur district.

The fans are not positioned properly over the beds in most of the wards, including the paediatrics department. There aren’t adequate fans in the corridors either, where many patients undergo treatment on makeshift beds placed on the floor.

Not only are fans playing truant, lack of drinking water facilities in various departments have compounded the miseries of patients and their attendants.

Patients and their attendants have to depend on water tanks set up by the public health department outside various wards. There are about eight such water tanks besides temporary water kiosks on the SCB premises.

“We have to go outside to fill bottles with drinking water from the public tanks outside the wards and various shops outside the hospital,” said Tushar Mishra, a patient’s attendant from Jajpur.

SCB hospital authorities said they would take steps to resolve these issues with assistance from the general electricity department at the earliest.

“Many of the old, defunct fans have been replaced in different wards. We have already procured 100 new ceiling fans, which will be installed at various departments wherever there is a requirement,” said senior hospital manager Srikanta Mahapatra.