HEALTH

Power failures, a routine at GMCH
Tribune News Service

Chandigarh, August 19
* On the morning of August 15 , electricity supply to the emergency operation theater at the Government Medical College and Hospital (GMCH), Sector 32, went off while a delivery operation was about to begin.

The backup power supply was immediately switched on, however, due to some technical snag, that too, failed leaving the operation theater without electricity for about 18 minutes. While it goes to the credit of the attending doctors that despite this handicap, they completed the operation successfully and both, mother and baby, are doing well, the fact remains that power supply to the operation theater was suspended while an emergency operation was on.

* The next day (August 16), when Deepti Nath’s life hung in a balance following an asthmatic attack which ultimately proved fatal, the power supply to the GMCH emergency was again disrupted for nearly one-and-a-half hours. According to the family members of the deceased, while Deepti lay struggling for life, the hospital remained without electricity from 7.15 to 8.45 p.m

The tough situation had the attending doctors racing against time, but they were not able to save her life. Deepti's family has not yet been able to come to terms with what happened at the GMCH on that fateful night and still can't believe that a state-of-the-art hospital of such a repute did not have any proper backup for such situations.

Member of Deepti's family still appreciates the role of doctors in attending to the patient in the candlelight and call it commendable. But they also lament the fact that even in an emergency ward, the hospital do not have a proper electricity backup. ‘‘Maybe the doctors tried their best. But for a hospital, having a situation like this is indeed shameful. I called up from Delhi to enquire about the condition of my sister and was told that I could not contact my family as there was a power failure in the hospital,’’ says sister of the deceased.

Sources say that these are not the only incidents when electricity supply in the hospital has failed both the patients and the doctors. In the past there has been instances when hospital lifts remained stalled for over 15 minutes leaving the occupants in the lurch.

The Medical Superintendent of the Hospital, Prof Raj Bahadur, said that the failure of doctor to save the life of the patient and the inadvertent technical failure were not interrelated.

The Superintending Engineer, UT Administration, Mr V.P. Dhingra, who and his team looks after the electricity supply in the hospital, admitted that backup supply to the emergency operation theater had failed ‘‘for 10 to 13 minutes following a snag in the emergency feeding switch.’’

The power supply on August 16 was disconnected as the feeding switch had to be replaced, says Mr Dhingra while adding that maintenance work was carried out with due permission.

Forum’s plea on biomedical waste
Tribune News Service

SAS Nagar, August 19
The Senior Citizens Welfare Forum has urged the local civic body to take steps to treat biomedical waste being generated from government and private hospitals in the town. Mr N.S. Sodhi, honorary president of the forum, said the hazardous biomedical waste should be separated from the other categories of the waste.

The forum has urged the civic body to place dustbins at earmarked places along the roads for regular removal of the garbage. Issuing of ID cards to the senior citizens by the district administration has also been demanded.

SPORTS

Sandeep, Bhupinder win I-Day Cup
Our Sports Reporter

Chandigarh, August 19
The team of Sandeep S. Sandhu and Bhupinder Singh today won the Independence Day Cup with a score of 3 and 1. They defeated Sagar and Bhatia at the Chandigarh Golf Club.

The finals were played on Sunday after they got postponed due to heavy rain on August 14. Sixtyfour teams participated in the tournament which was played on a knock-out basis over the last eight weeks.

The tournament was started in 1973 and ever since has been played without any break. This year the tournament started on July 3.

All others who were knocked out during the course of tournament competed for the Loser’s Plate.

Tarun Lehal was the nett winner and H.S. Kang the nett runner-up.

Football Championship

Sanjay Public School, Sector 44, beat Guru Nanak Public School, Sector 36, by 4-0 on the third day of the Chandigarh sub-Junior Football Championship for Sanjay Trophy, played here at the Football Stadium, Sector 17.

Table Tennis meet

Reserve Bank of India ‘A’ won the table tennis championship in the Acharya Memorial Inter-Bank and Financial Institution Tournament, here today. The RBI ‘A’ team beat the RBI ‘B’ team to lift the championship with Dheeraj Arora, Onkar Singh and Mandeep Singh winning their respective singles titles. The finals of the men’s singles event will be held tomorrow at 4.30 in the evening.

Cricket tournament

The Panchkula District team today outscored the Chandigarh team by 102 runs in the Haryana State Inter-District Cricket Tournament for under-19 trophy played here at Satluj Public School, Sector 4, Panchkula.

Scores: Panchkula: 208 runs for eight in 35 overs (Tejwinder Singh Gill 41, Karan Kashyap 28 n.o., Sunny Sharma 25, Vishal Sahni 25, Ravi shanker 23, Sunil 3 for 35) and Chandigarh 106 all out in 29 overs (Kamal 17, Sansar Bali 15, Harish Garg 2 for six, Amit 2 for 20, Vikas 2 for 22).

Ramanpreet bags boys title
Our Sports Reporter

Chandigarh, August 19
Ramanpreet of Shishu Niketan Senior Secondary School, Sector 22, clinched the junior boys singles title in the fourh St Stephen’s carrom tournament held here today at St Stephen’s School, Sector 45.

Ramanpreet beat Dhruva of GMSSS-46. Shikha Nanda of GMSSS-37 bagged the girls title by outplaying Sakhi Bawa of St Stephen’s School, Sector 45.

In men’s singles, Tejinder Harry, Devinderjit, Sanjay Negi, Jagdish Dhir, Gagandeep, Sujash and K.S. Patwal participated.

In women’s section, Saroj Chandel, Veena Dumra, Anjali Negi and Shikha participated in the tournament. Taranpreet scored a white slam while playing against Jills Rien in the second round of the junior boys singles event.