Chitwan, February 22

Almost a dozen private hospitals and medical colleges in Chitwan will be badly affected due to the government’s recent decision to cut off dedicated feeder power supply to the district.

As many as 10 private hospitals and two medical colleges of the district aid their service delivery would be hit and the services will cost more if power is supplied through a single feeder. Earlier, the government had been providing uninterrupted electricity to health facilities stating that they were extremely sensitive zones. Nepal Electricity Authority has written to private health facilities urging them to remove the dedicated feeder from February 23.

Private hospitals, along with two medical colleges in Chitwan had been using 11,000 volts electricity from Baseni sub-station of Bharatpur so far.

According to Tara Sharma, Chief at NEA Bharatpur Distribution Centre, the health facilities will get electricity from a single feeder from tomorrow onwards. He added that a total of 1,200 KVA electricity will be saved after the health facilities are provided power with a single feeder.

The health facilities, however, said it was unreasonable to use generators for more than seven or eight hours a day on regular basis.

“We’ll have no option but to hike the price of health care services if there is power crunch of such a large scale,” said hospital operators.

According to them, more than 100 litres diesel is required to run ICU, NICU, CCU, emergency ward, operation theatre, and different equipment in those wards each hour.

College of Medical Sciences Bharatpur Director Dr Natraj Prasad said the government’s decision to cut power supply had put them in a difficult situation. He said, “If the hospitals are provided electricity through a single feeder, it will be almost impossible to provide uninterrupted services.”

It is impossible to manage at least three 205 KVA generators within two days, said Prasad. He added that more than 100 neuro, open-heart and angioplast surgeries would be affected due to the power crunch.

Dr Harishchandra Neupane, MD of Chitwan Medical College, said the ICU ward that caters to 171 patients at a time, along with 50 surgery cases per day would be affected due to the power crunch. “Patients might lose their life due to power disruption when electricity is supplied through a single feeder,” said Neupane.