In an incident highlighting infrastructural failure in healthcare systems, an emergency surgery had to be stopped mid way due to power outage in a government hospital in Punjab. The incident happened in Patiala’s Rajinder Hospital.
A video, which shows the halted surgery process, is now in wide circulation on social media. A doctor in the video expresses his frustration and says, “this is not the first time that the electricity supply in the main emergency of the government Rajindra Hospital in Patiala has been erratic.”
“If something happens to the patient, who will be responsible for it,” the doctor further says.
The patient was on ventilator support when the power went off mid-way during the surgery. “The patient is on venti support, it’s been 15 minutes since the power went off,” the doctor says, as the camera pans to the team of doctors and hospital staff in the operation theatre trying to manage the situation.
“The patient is intubated, the surgery is going on, but there is no electricity…,” the doctor says.
The video also shows doctors manually ventilating the intubated patient.
Political slugfest follows
After the video made rounds on social media, Union Minister of State and BJP leader Ravneet Bittu also shared the video and criticised the ruling Aam Aadmi Party government for their negligence. “The deteriorated condition of medical facilities as well as electricity, the two things AAP promised to perfect has come to surface in a very painful event,” he said in a post on X.
“A surgeon of Rajindra Hospital had to come on camera to issue a disclaimer that due to fault in electricity a patient might lose their life during a surgery in the OT. CM and his ministers have deserted Punjab and shifted to Delhi just to please their dictator kejriwal. But at what cost?” he added.
Punjab health minister and an eye surgeon himself, Balbir Singh, shared a clarification saying that a “local fault” led to “momentary loss of electricity.” Giving an update on the surgery, he also said the procedure went well and the patient is recovering.
“The power backup systems at Rajindra hospital, Patiala are multi level (3 hotlines) & functioning without issue. Today, a local fault led to momentary loss of electricity. The UPS and generator backup functioned seamlessly & the surgery was conducted without issue. Patient is recovering well. Unfortunately, a junior doctor panicked and recorded a video. Medical staff must remain focussed on patient care at all times,” he said in a post on X.