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Load-shedding hits critical hospital services |
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KATHMANDU, Dec 29: Hospitals, nursing homes and medical colleges in Kathmandu Valley have been hard hit by the lengthy load-shedding schedule.
“We are having a difficult time keeping critical services like Intensive Care Unit (ICU) running,” said Professor Dr Govinda Sharma, chief executive officer at Kathmandu Medical College (KMC), Sinamangal.
He said the ICU needs a round-the-clock power supply to keep critical equipment like ventilators and air conditioners functioning. The medical college is also facing difficulties running its Medical ICU, where patients who haven’t necessarily undergone surgery but face problems such as difficulty breathing, are kept.
Dr Sharma said operating costs of the medical college have shot up due to the power cuts, now up to 12 hours a day. The hospital has been bearing an additional operating cost of Rs 43,200 daily. The diesel generator used by the hospital needs 50 liters of diesel per hour to operate.
Dr Sharma expressed another worry - “What if there is sudden shortage of diesel?”
Winters generally see a surge in lung patients, and this winter is no exception, with a surge of patients being admitted with respiratory problems. Such patients require intensive care, which is not possible without 24 continuous hours of power supply.
KMC is one of the most affordable medical colleges in the country, as it has an agreement with the government that it will not charge fees to patients occupying 30 percent of the hospital beds.
The college has handed over a request letter to the health minister demanding an alternative power supply. “We are under real pressure,” Dr Sharma said. “What if we can’t cope with the situation? It is not possible for us to seek bank loan to keep the hospital running.”
Capital Hospital in Putalisadak is also facing serious problems.
Prakash Adhikari, general manager of the hospital, said it has been using an inverter, but that the inverter cannot produce enough power to run much of its equipment, such as the X-ray machine.
X-ray machines require around 250 kilo volts (KV) of current. The inverter used by the hospital cannot support this load. Similarly, a high volt compressor is needed for providing dental services, which inverters cannot support.
“We can’t even run autoclave machine, which is a must to sterilize hospital equipment,” he added.
Adhikari said that the 50-bed hospital is not able to provide instant relief services to patients. For example, if a patient is admitted with severe muscle pain during load-shedding hours, he or she could not get the medical care they require because curing such pain requires an electric hot bag that needs high volt current, which again is not possible from inverters.
The hospital is visited by 35 to 40 patients daily, and with specialization in orthopedic services, carries out one surgery per day on average.
“The increasing load-shedding is hanging like a sword of Damocles over the health institutions,” remarked one of the senior officials at the Blue Cross Nursing Home, Tripureshwor. “Though we haven’t faced instant problem, we can’t say the situation will remain safe if the problem of power crisis remains as it is.”
The nursing home has been running on a 100 KV diesel generator. On the one hand, the cost has gone up, while on the other, the machine is not safe and can malfunction at any time. The problem is that those on ventilators need power around-the-clock. Even a few seconds of power disconnection can threaten the life of the patient on the ventilator, the official said.
The diesel generator goes off from time to time, and sometimes takes 15 to 20 minutes to repair, he said.
The health institutions are particularly worried about the possibility people might target them if a patient loses their life owing to power failure.
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