Bhopal JP hospital power outage sparks emergency:Diesel not filled in generator, causing major disruption in surgery and critical patient care

A major case of negligence came to light on Saturday morning at JP Hospital in Bhopal. Just before the surgery began, the power in the operating theatre (OT) went out, and doctors had to treat the patient in the light of a torch. During this time, the dialysis of 8 patients also stopped. Investigation revealed that this situation arose because they forgot to put diesel in the generator. The hospital remained in darkness for one hour and 14 minutes. The power went out at 10:05 AM and came back on at 11:19 AM. During this period, the entire hospital, including the OT, OPD, IPD, ICU, and Civil Surgeon’s chamber, was in darkness. Seriously ill patients admitted to the ICU had to endure humidity and suffocation. Surgeons were about to make an incision on the patient
At around 9:55 AM, the patient was given anesthesia (sedative) and lay on the OT table. The surgeons were just about to start the operation when suddenly the power went out. Only the monitor connected to the UPS was lit. When the power didn’t return for two to three minutes, the doctors turned on their flashlights. The relief was that by that time, no incision had been made on the patient’s body. The doctors immediately started the process to reduce the effects of anesthesia and postponed the surgery. Dialysis of 8 patients also stalled
Meanwhile, the dialysis that started at 8 AM stopped midway due to a power outage around 10 AM. With the machines’ backup, dialysis could only be continued for 25 minutes, whereas more than an hour was still left for the process to complete. Dialysis Unit In-charge Armaan Khan stopped the dialysis for safety and instructed the blood bank to keep two units of blood reserved. There was no diesel in the generator
According to hospital staff, when there was a fault in the power line at 10 AM, the generator was started, but it also did not run. Later, it was found that there was no diesel in the generator.
On this, CMHO and Civil Surgeon Dr. Manish Sharma reprimanded hospital manager Premchand Gupta. After this, diesel was filled, and power was restored. CMHO said – preparing for three-layer connection
CMHO Dr. Manish Sharma informed that the power went out due to a fault in the transformer. We tried to start the generator, but the line tripped. There are also some technical reasons for this, for which a committee is being formed to investigate. Action will be taken against those responsible based on the report. A three-layer connection system is being arranged in the hospital by adding two optional power sources. Additionally, an employee will be assigned the duty of checking the diesel level in the generator daily, who will record the daily report in a register. Apprehension of diesel theft from the generator
Diesel was last filled in the hospital’s generator on September 16, but its record was not in the register. It was also not clear how many hours the generator ran and how much diesel was consumed. Due to weak monitoring, there is a constant apprehension of diesel theft.