Nurses use phone lights to treat patients during power cuts at Barishal hospitals

At Barishal General Hospital, nurses sometimes use mobile phone lights to treat patients when the electricity fails at night. The outages have continued for about a month and a half, according to Tumpa Rani, the nurse in charge of the diarrhoea ward.

Patients in the ward struggle with intense heat. During a visit around noon, the temperature outside was 32 degrees Celsius, while the ward felt hotter. Nearly every patient used a hand fan, and the electricity had gone out for about an hour before returning.

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Because of the intense heat, we have no choice but to use hand fans.

Tumpa said 28 diarrhoea patients were receiving treatment that day, although the number sometimes rises to 80. Staff had requested an IPS backup system, but no action had followed. Resident medical officer Dr Moloy Krishna Baral said the hospital treats about 450 inpatients and 750 outpatients each day.

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The situation has continued for about one and a half months. We have informed the authorities, but no solution has come yet.

The hospital has a generator, but it has been out of order since the Covid-19 pandemic. It also has only one power connection. “If the power goes out during an operation, we become helpless,” Baral said. He added that the hospital had applied for a second connection, but fuel shortages would make it difficult to operate a generator. The hospital has no separate budget for generator fuel.

Sher-e-Bangla Medical College Hospital, a 1,000-bed facility, faces similar shortages. During the visit, hundreds of patients and attendants coped with heat and overcrowding, while corridors, staircases and verandahs in the paediatric ward were packed.

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If the power goes out during an operation, we become helpless.