Raiganj district hospital. Picture by Nantu Dey

Raiganj, July 2: The Raiganj district hospital has been running without a power backup as its only generator has broken down, forcing a nurse to administer an injection in the light of her cellphone.

The town generally goes without power for two-three hours after dusk every day.

The generator conked out on Saturday and the entire hospital was plunged in darkness when the power went off at 10pm.

Till this evening, no new generator had been installed, nor was the defunct generator repaired.

When The Telegraph visited the children’s ward during the power cut, candles were burning in two corners of the room.

The infants in the ward were wailing unable to bear the heat and a nurse was found administering an injection to a baby, using the light of her cellphone to locate the vein.

“The child was admitted this evening with congestion. I took charge for night shift and was readying the syringe when the power went off. I had to use my cellphone to give the baby an injection,” the nurse said.

Keshab Banerjee, a gynaecologist, said four pregnant women had just been admitted for delivery when the power went off.

“We were keeping our fingers crossed because if anybody complained of labour pain, we would have had to conduct the delivery in candlelight and certain machines also would not work without power. This can prove hazardous for the women and the newborns. We had to wait for one-and-a-half hours after which power supply resumed. Fortunately, none of the four women had labour pain,” said Banerjee.

As fans are not working during power cuts, the condition of patients worsened because of excessive heat.

“I have admitted my father after he fell ill because of the ongoing spell of heat. His condition had improved also. But as the fans were not working during power cuts, his condition deteriorated again,” said Nitin Saha, a local youth.

Asked about the patients’ condition, Sanjoy Dey, a doctor, said: “Elderly and young people are falling ill because of the heat. If they stay in the similar weather condition without a fan, there is a risk of electrolytic imbalance that can affect their physical conditions. The hospital authorities need to make an alternative arrangement to ease the problem during the power cut.”

Arabindra Tantri, the hospital superintendent, said the generator had been bought in 2001.

“After few years, the number of wards and beds increased and there was excessive load on the generator. The generator would often stop working and we had to repair it time and again. When it went out of order on Saturday, mechanics could not restore it and suggested a replacement,” said Tantri.

He said an inverter was being used during power cuts now to light certain wards of the hospital.

“We have sent a proposal to the state health department to purchase a 150KVA generator. Unless funds for the new generator reach us, we have nothing much to do to ease the problems faced by patients, doctors and other hospital staff and,” said the hospital head.