Srinagar, Jan 8: The government’s failure to provide uninterrupted power supply to the premier SMHS hospital here has adversely affected the surgeries of patients.
 Sources in the hospital told Greater Kashmir that the medicos were struggling to conduct even simple procedures in the health centre due to erratic power supply. “The minor surgeries which could be done in 10 to 15 minutes are taking hours as the hospital is receiving interrupted power supply from Friday,” sources said, adding the doctors were finding it difficult to undertake these procedures. 
 According to the attendants of a patient, Feroz Ahmed of Kawdara whose abscess was to be removed from the body on Friday evening, they were told by the medicos that the procedure would take 10 to 15 minutes. “He was taken inside the operation theater and was handed back after one and half hour,” said the attendants, adding that they were apprehensive about the fate of their loved ones as the doctors took much time for the surgery. The attendants said that after inquiring from the junior staff in the theatre, they came to know that after their patient was administered local anesthesia by the doctors’, the power supply got snapped due to which the surgeons had to wait. “The doctors couldn’t start the operation and during that time, the effect of the anesthesia had gone. The medico had to use the anesthesia for second time to conduct the operation, which was done successfully,” the attendants quoting the junior staff said.
 In another incident, the appendectomy of a 15-year-old kid took two hours as the doctors struggled to operate upon him following erratic power supply in the evening. “We were informed that the surgery will take 20 minutes, but it proved to be otherwise,” the attendants said.
 According to the attendants of patients admitted in wards, their loved ones also faced problems as they couldn’t keep a close watch over them due to erratic power. “The attendants whose patients were on intravenous fluids failed to monitor them properly due to which blood oozed out from their veins and into the pipes,” the sources added.   
 The attendants also complained that the CT scan in the Shireen Bagh Trauma hospital was not functioning causing huge inconvenience to the patients. “The patients visiting the room for test were told that the machine is not functioning due to non-availability of the electricity,” the attendants added.
 When contacted, the SMHS Medical Superintendent, Dr Rafiq Pampori said the surgeries were done on time and there were no delays in the procedures.

Lastupdate on : Sun, 8 Jan 2012 21:30:00 Makkah time
Lastupdate on : Sun, 8 Jan 2012 18:30:00 GMT
Lastupdate on : Mon, 9 Jan 2012 00:00:00 IST