Power cut: Man falls off hospital building, dies
KARNAL: A 45-year-old attendant of a patient died after allegedly falling off the fourth floor of the newly set up building of Kalpana Chawla Government Medical College and Hospital (KCGMCH), Karnal, on Sunday night during a power cut.
The deceased has been identified as Daya Ram of Jenesron village of the district.
As per sources, even though the hospital has a separate power sub-station, it experiences regular power cuts.
Moreover, the hospital lacks an automatic power back-up, due to which patients and doctors have to bear the brunt.
On April 13, after chief minister Manohar Lal Khattar inaugurated the building, the hospital experienced a long outage that last for several hours.
But the hospital management did not take the required steps to ensure uninterrupted electricity back up.
Interestingly, the hospital has already got approval from the Medical Council of India (MCI) to start 100 MBBS seats from this academic year but this development has raised serious questions over the facilities at the hospital.
When contacted, KCGMCH director Dr Surender Kashyap said, “The hospital is facing regular power cuts and this is the main reason behind the electricity failure.
However, we have enough electricity generators for back up but it does not provide automatic back up and we have to transfer the lines manually.”
“Though the electricity failure was only for a few minutes, the hospital requires uninterrupted back up and we are working on it and soon we will switch to automatic electricity back up facility,” he added.
Reacting over the death of the 45-year-old, Kashyap said, “We did not have sufficient evidence to prove that the incident took place due to electricity failure as I have talked to the security guards and there was no eye witness.”
“But the hospital management has extended all support to the police for investigation,” he added.
When the issue of electricity cuts was raised with Karnal superintending engineer of UHBVN AK Raheja, he said, “It was a complete electricity failure due to power grid failure. If we do not have electricity how we will supply it.”
“But the hospital should have auto-run back up to avoid interruptions,” he added. Set up on Bhagwan Parsuram Road, the 350-bed hospital was inaugurated by chief minister Manohar Lal Khattar on April 13.
It was a complete electricity failure due to grid glitch. If we do not have electricity, how we will supply it. But the hospital should have auto backup to avoid interruptions. AK RAHEJA, superintending engineer of UHBVN