HYDERABAD: The state-run Gandhi Hospital, a premier 1,200-bed medical facility in the city, is under a cloud after 21 patients died on Friday and the medical staff blamed power outages for the deaths.
Some doctors said electricity first tripped around 3pm and then continued to do so at regular intervals. Although there were four generators on standby, the hospital claimed they had developed snags and could not be used after power lines were later cut off, to find the cause of the tripping.
The deaths occurred in specialty wards, including the surgical intensive care unit, neo-natal intensive care unit, respiratory intensive care unit, acute medical care unit and the emergency ward, all of which were affected by Friday’s power failure. Telangana health minister Dr C Laxma Reddy said it would be wrong to directly blame the deaths in a top state-run tertiary hospital on the power outages as they get "maximum number of last-stage cases".
"In my 14 years of working at this hospital, on an average, 10 patients die every day," said Dr R Raghu, general secretary (Gandhi Hospital unit), Telangana Government Doctors’ Association.
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