KARACHI, Sept 18: The staff of the Civil Hospital Karachi and the Sindh Institute of Urology and Transplantation were smarting on Thursday from the power failure that hit it on Wednesday. They had to cancel a number of non-essential surgical operations in an effort to accommodate the essential ones slated for the previous day.

Equipment worth millions of rupees, installed at the various units of the Civil Hospital also developed faults following the fluctuations in voltage and power failure on Wednesday.

Sources told Dawn on Thursday that a few of these equipment pieces had since then been repaired. However, at least three of the damaged pieces were beyond repair.

The hospital’s medical superintendent, Capt Dr M. Raza Ali, said many patients left the hospital for other health facilities owing to the inconvenience, even pain, caused to them on Wednesday. He was of the view that it was high time the hospital acquired a standby generator.

A lab technician working for the PWA’s laboratory said the doctors had to improvise and use some battery-based converters — commonly known as UPSs — to provide electricity non-stop to some low-load equipment. “However, other equipment had to be shut down because they were too heavy,” he said.

The equipment pieces damaged included: endoscopic camera; C-arm machine; and, stabilizer element. Some ventilators and adaptors had developed faults but were repaired later.

Meanwhile, a spokesman for the Karachi Electric Supply Corporation said Wednesday’s power breakdown had been due to a cable fault. He added that the KESC managing director had asked the chief engineer to sort out the problem in consultation with the CHK medical superintendent on a permanent basis.

He said the CHK’s medical superintendent should have promptly informed the KESC about the power breakdown. The spokesman said no power breakdown at the CHK had been reported on Thursday.

This statement goes against the one by the hospital’s MS who claimed that despite repeated complaints with the KESC staff on Wednesday, its senior officials had not intervened in the matter.