ATTOCK, June 10: The prolonged power outages and lack of water have brought the functioning of the district headquarters (DHQ) hospital Attock at a standstill, and doctors in the operation theatre (OT) are forced to use liquid glucose to wash their hands and surgical instruments.

Dr Amjad Luqman, Incharge OT, told Dawn that the hospital had made provisions to handle any emergency in the operating room, but on Monday the doctors gave up.

“How can we wash our hands, sterilise surgical equipments and perform sensitive operations when there is no water and no electricity at the hospital since morning?” he said.

He added that some patients required urgent surgery, but the lack of facilities made it impossible to do so.

“Today’s situation has been the worst, as lack of power and water has paralysed the entire hospital,” he said.

An attendant, Mian Khan, who was sitting outside the OT along with a female patient on a stretcher, said he had been waiting all day for the operation, but the OT was not functioning due to lack of power and water.

Patients and visitors at the hospital said the doctors could not be blamed for the lack of treatment at the hospital, as the doctors could not work without power and water. However, the patients demanded of the government to ensure smooth supply of electricity to hospitals.

The medical superintendent (MS) at the hospital, Dr Khalid Mehmood Khan, said the administration would be requested to provide two parallel electricity connections to the hospital. Thus in case power is unavailable at one connection, the other could be used instead. Mr Khan said the total budget for the year 2012-2013 had been Rs4.9 million, which had exhausted last month, adding that the hospital had to spend more on running generators due to the unprecedented power loadshedding.

“We kept the hospital running by taking loan from the fuel suppliers (POL), and now liabilities worth Rs650,000 are pending,” he said, adding that the POL had suspended further supply till all liabilities were cleared.

“An application has been forwarded to the district coordination officer (DCO) to allocate a pre-appropriation budget of Rs1.15 million so that generators and other infrastructure can be operated at emergency departments,” he said.

When contacted, DCO Mohammad Iqbal said he had already approved of the pre-appropriation budget of DHQ hospital, and the hospital administration was perhaps not aware of it.

The DCO also directed the Executive District Officer (EDO) Finance to ensure the amount was delivered to the hospital. He also assured that all available measures would be utilised to ensure the smooth operation of DHQ hospital. However, he said the matter would be streamlined after the approval of the proposed 2013-14 budget.— Correspondent