Health and family welfare and medical education minister Dr Balbir Singh on Monday ordered power supply and fire safety audit at all the medical colleges, civil hospitals, sub-divisional hospitals and block level hospitals across the state.
The health minister issued these directions while addressing a high-level meeting with all the civil surgeons of civil hospitals and medical superintendents of medical colleges, health and family welfare secretary Kumar Rahul, public works department secretary Ravi Bhagat, Punjab Health System Corporation (PHSC) managing director Varinder Kumar Sharma, PSPCL CMD Baldev Singh Sran, director health Dr Hitinder Kaur and director, research and medical education, Dr Avnish Kumar.
As per the directions issued by the health minister, all critical care units, including operation theatres, labour rooms, emergencies, SNCUs, and NICUs, must have UPS-based power backup for at least 30 minutes in case of a power outage. Additionally, a fully functional generator set with an adequate supply of diesel must be present at all healthcare facilities. The minister also ordered the constitution of committees at all levels, including district, sub-division and block level hospitals.
The committee, which will comprise representatives from the health department/medical college, PSPCL, and PWD-electrical, will be responsible for ensuring uninterrupted power supply at all health facilities. The committee members will coordinate with each other and provide reports on the functionality status of UPS and other power backup systems available at the health facility level.
“These committees will make frequent visits at their respective hospitals to ensure that there is availability of power backup and fully functional Genset,” the health minister said.
All civil surgeons were also directed to ensure that backup power supply is available immediately in case of a power cut, so that critical services are not hampered. Effective communication linkage must also be established with the person responsible for switching on the backup power supply to ensure prompt action, the minister added.
He also asked the officials to create a WhatsApp group of all the members of the above committees to ensure prompt response in case of any power outage situations. The officers were told to immediately conduct fire safety audit and ensure availability of fire extinguishers, especially, at all critical care units. Hindustan Times