Several hundred patients at Rangpur Medical College Hospital suffered as the health facility remained partially out of power supply for over four hours on Saturday after a fire in the air conditioning system at intensive care unit at about 4:00pm.
RMCH deputy director AM Akhtaruzzaman said that power disrupted suddenly at around 4:00pm, keeping a large portion of the hospital, including the intensive care unit, the coronary care unit, wards, and the emergency department out of power supply.
鈥楾he power supply abruptly halted at the ICU, the BURN unit, emergency ward and ward 7 of the hospital in the afternoon. But we fixed the ICU connection immediately. We managed to support the patients.聽 The PWD technicians, however, restored the power supply in wards at around 8:30pm,鈥� he said, adding that patients of the units suffered until 8:30pm when public works department engineers restored power.
There was no casualty due to the power cut but regular service delivery was hampered, he said.
The hospital technicians immediately brought the fire under control, disconnecting the AC power connection.
After an effort of four and a half hours, the PWD technicians managed to restore the power supply in the hospital.
An official of the hospital, preferring not to be named, said that most part of the ICU, the BURN unit, Emergency ward and ward 7 of the hospital remained out of power supply for around five hours.
A relative of a patient of the burn unit, Rafiqul Miah, said that patients suffered the worst at the hospital amid the power disruption.聽聽
Jamaluddin Mintu, ICU in-charge of the RMCH, said, 鈥榃e have managed to restore the power supply at the ICU immediately after the power outage. We, however, tried our best to support the patients during the power disruption.鈥櫬�
An assistant engineer of the NESCO, stationed in the Rangpur medical college area, on condition of anonymity, said that the fire was caused due to a technical glitch in the transformer set up for the hospital.
鈥楤ut we have no problem from our end as we have a steady power supply,鈥� he added.聽