Patients in shock at Chennai's Kalainagar Hospital after sudden power outage

Chennai: A sudden power outage at the Kalaignar Centenary Super Specialty Hospital, Guindy, here, purportedly due to an electrical short circuit on late Saturday night left the patients and their attendants in shock.

A senior government official, however, said the power supply was restored.

Additional Chief Secretary of Tamil Nadu Health department Supriya Sahu said there was a fire accident in the main cable at the hospital, impacting the power supply in the KCSSH.

“The generator supply cable was also impacted. But immediately, we ensured power supply to 419 patients including 15 on ventillator support, through a separate generator. As a result, these patients were not affected,” she said.

Sahu said the Chief Engineer of Public Works Department and other officials made sure that power supply was provided through one HT cable. At present work was on to repair the generator.

“Our priority now is to make sure that the patients on ventillator support and critical care are not affected. We spoke to their attendants and gave an assurance. Main hospital supply has been restored now and there’s no need to panic,” Sahu told reporters at the hospital.

Besides the Additional Chief Secretary, State Health Minister Ma Subramanian, too visited the hospital to oversee the restoration.

The KCSSH has been in the news for wrong reasons in the past few days.

The hospital witnessed a shocking incident of a senior oncologist getting stabbed by a patient’s son on November 13, and two days later the kin of a patient who died at the hospital protested alleging medical negligence.

“There might be many reasons for the power disruption. It may be due to short circuit or water seeping into the electric cables. The reason is being probed,” Sahu said and added that the power supply was restored within an hour.

“We went to all the wards and assured the attendants of the patients that there was nothing to panic. We were all here. Took maximum care to ensure supply to critical care patients,” she said.