16 February 2004	Monday	24 Zilhaj 1424

DADU, Feb 15: Doctors of the Civil Hospital of Dadu on Saturday said they faced difficulties in performing operations due to the power loadshedding. They feared that if the loadshedding was not stopped , medicines and vaccines stored in refrigerators for emergency use would be affected.

Hospital civil surgeon Dr Javed Ahmad Dawach said the unannounced loadshedding was causing hardships to patients waiting for operations. He said instead of a 200kv transformer for standby, a transformer of 100kv was provided to the hospital which was not covering the total load of the hospital.

He said ultrasound and X-Ray machines did not work in emergency on generators. Dr Dawach said the hospital administration was paying power bills every month.

He said daily turnout of patients at the hospital was 1,100 to 1,200 and it was difficult to examine them due to load shedding. General surgeon Dr Mohammad Qasim Chandio said the power suspension affected about 10 operations daily.

Gynaecologist Dr Zarina said the load shedding was the main problem during emergency and delivery cases. The focal person for Wapda and the DDO, health, Dr Zahid Hussain Dawach, said the health department had written to Hesco authorities to stop unannounced loadshedding.

He said Hesco should provide a 200kv transfer to cover all wards of the hospital. He said transformers of other health facilities, including Phulji station, Makhdoom Bilawal, Allahyarani, Faridabad and Lakki, were also out of order.

DEMO: A large number of residents held a protest demonstration outside the DPO office here on Saturday against the Dadu police station SHO. They were led by Sohail Ahmad Dawach, Mohammad Amin Dawach and Imdad Dawach.