Pune: The air conditioning system at Aundh District Hospital’s intensive care unit (ICU) has stopped functioning for the past four days, inconveniencing patients.To ensure that patients under critical care are protected from outdoor infections, a centralised air conditioning system is a must in every hospital. However, in this case, since the system had stopped functioning, the hospital staff was forced to keep the doors and windows open to ensure ventilation, putting patients, who are immunocompromised, at risk of infection.The PWD’s electrical department has been delaying taking charge of the electrical maintenance work at the hospital for the past two years, civil surgeon Nagnath Yempalle said.“For the past four days, the air conditioning system (AC) in the ICU has stopped working, and we have been following up with the PWD’s electrical team, but we are yet to get a response from them. The AC system was installed two years ago, and since then, we have been asking the PWD to take over; however, they are yet to do so. We even had a meeting at the collector’s office on the same issue and the collector asked them to take charge immediately, but it is yet to happen. The private company that installed the system maintained the ACs for two years, but now with the warranty over, they are not taking responsibility for the same,” Yempalle saidSheetalkumar Munde, executive engineer, PWD (electrical) said, “We are yet to take charge of the system, and that needs to be done properly. The company that installed the ACs should inform us thoroughly about the entire system, hand over the documents and then only we can take charge of the AC system. Meanwhile, I have asked our junior engineer to resolve the issue immediately to ensure that the patients do not suffer.“Dr Yempalle further said, “The centralized air conditioning has been shut for four days now, and so to ensure ventilation for our patients, we have to keep the doors and windows open, which does expose our patients to various viruses, bacteria, and fungi, but we have no other option.”
