Siliguri, Aug. 12: More than 300 patients suffered in the sweltering heat as the district hospital here was plunged into darkness for close to two hours last night.

The situation was made worse by the fact that the main generator could not function for want of fuel.

“It was very hot inside the dark ward. I could not bear the heat and came out of the hospital,” said Deepak Burman, a resident of Shantinagar, who is currently admitted at the hospital. Gautam Haldar, a patient from Jalpaiguri district, complained that without lights, patients could not go to the toilets.

Two weeks ago a similar incident had taken place in North Bengal Medical College and Hospital. The problem there was overcome with a special feeder connection being set up soon after.

“Unlike other hospitals, we don’t have a special connection to cope with emergencies,” said Pradip Sarkar, the hospital superintendent. “We have approached the electricity department several times, but nothing has materialised.”

West Bengal State Electricity Distribution Company Limited officials, however, are not ready to buy this story and its divisional engineer Liton Bhowmik said: “The hospital authorities have never approached us for the special connection. If they did, we would be bound to provide them the link.”