In hospitals,services rely on back-up power units

At Chacha Nehru Bal Chikitsalay,a children’s hospital under the Delhi government,officials said two of four air-conditioning plants do not have a proper back-up,due to which ACs in wards had to be turned off.

“The power supply went off in the afternoon,by when elective surgeries are over. If we have sufficient time to charge our generators,we will manage fine,otherwise elective procedures might have to be rescheduled on Wednesday,” a doctor with Pediatric Surgery at the hospital said.

At Baba Saheb Ambedkar Hospital,too,doctors said services would be affected if they do not get enough time to charge the generators.

“We have a back-up of about 12 hours. So,if we have enough time to charge the generators through the night,there should be no problem. Otherwise,we will only operationalise emergency services,” an official said.

Lal Bahadur Shastri Hospital in Khichripur completed all its surgeries by afternoon. Doctors said emergency services were maintained throughout the outage.

Guru Teg Bahadur,Deen Dayal Upadhyay and Lok Nayak hospitals — the nodal Delhi government hospitals in East,West and Central Delhi — also maintained routine services.

Health secretary Anshu Prakash said,“The power back up systems have been pressed into operation. We have sufficient diesel stocks. Services in critical areas such as operation theatres and emergency are not effected. Even in wards lighting arrangement and fans are functioning.”