Power outage at Noida’s Sec 39 hospital leaves patients distressed

A sudden electrical glitch on Wednesday plunged the Noida Sector 39 district hospital into darkness, inconveniencing patients and visitors, and also caused the lift to malfunction, trapping several people inside for nearly an hour, hospital management staff said.

The power failure happened around 11am, disrupting essential hospital services. Doctors were seen examining patients using mobile phone flashlights. Patients requiring immediate medical attention faced delays as some medical equipment temporarily stopped functioning, the staff said.

“It is shocking that a district hospital does not have a reliable power backup system. This kind of disruption is unacceptable, especially at a medical facility,” said Anant Agarwal, a visitor at the hospital.

The hospital administration attributed the glitch to a fault in the 37 kV line, which supplies electricity to the district hospital and another medical facility nearby.

“As soon as the fault was detected, we immediately informed the power department. The power supply was disrupted for two hospitals, including another located in Sector 30. We have requested the discom to provide a separate feeder for the district hospital to avoid such issues in the future,” said Dr Renu Agarwal, chief medical superintendent.

While officials claimed that the power was disconnected for only 45 minutes, fluctuations continued throughout the period, causing further inconvenience to doctors and patients.

According to power discom officials, strong winds had disturbed overhead power cables, leading to an outage in the area. While the power was restored after some time, technical failures followed, affecting hospital services temporarily.

“Strong winds caused disturbances in overhead power cables, and a few trees were uprooted in some areas. However, the issue was resolved, and power supply was restored at Sector 39 district hospital,” said Samarth Shrivastava, SDO, Paschimanchal Vidyut Vitran Nigam Ltd. (PVVNL) Division 2.

However, by the time the electricity was restored, chaos reigned at the hospital. The most concerning incident was the malfunctioning of a lift, which stopped on the fourth floor with people inside, trapping them for almost an hour.

One of the persons trapped in the lift recorded a video stating that the elevator had stopped midway and uploaded it on social media. “This is the state of government hospitals in Uttar Pradesh,” he remarked in the purported video. “We are stuck in this situation for nearly an hour, with no response from the SOS system,” he said.

Officials said the hospital has lifts equipped with an automatic system designed to stop at the nearest floor and open in case of a power failure. However, a malfunction occurred on the fourth floor, leading to a prolonged ordeal for those trapped inside.

“The lift had stopped at a service floor due to the power disruption. The floor is usually locked as it is used for hospital storage, but as we received the information, staff members were directed to the location, and the people inside were rescued. No patient was inside the elevator at the time of the incident,” Dr Agarwal said.

Further compounding the crisis, the hospital’s 1500 kV generator, which serves as a backup power source, failed to start due to a technical glitch.

Hospital administration, however, assured that they were implementing corrective measures to prevent such occurrences in the future. “This was the first time the backup system was nonfunctional. We have already contacted the technical team to address the issue,” Agarwal said.