Arunachal hospital OPD suffers AC failure, patients swelter

Patients and attendants at the Outpatient Department (OPD) of Tomo Riba Institute of Health and Medical Sciences (TRIHMS) in Arunachal Pradesh have been braving sweltering conditions for over a week due to a snag in the centralised air conditioning system. 

The breakdown of the AC unit at the OPD block of the state's first medical college has turned the multi-crore facility into a virtual sauna. With no respite from the sultry weather, tempers have been running high among those visiting the hospital.

"Since two days we are coming to this OPD building for the treatment & facing this suffocation due to failure of centralized air cooling system. The gynae ward, pediatrics section, even the visitors' area - no one has been spared from this ordeal," rued Yangbiu Takung, an attendant. Allegations of mismanagement of funds have been leveled against the TRIHMS administration.

While admitting to the technical glitch, Chief Medical Superintendent Dr Dukhum Raina said efforts are on to rectify the issue. "There is a fault in the chiller unit's compressor and condenser. We wrote a letter to the health department to instruct the company which installed this air cooling system & it may take a week to make it work accordingly," he stated.  

In the interim, table fans and desert coolers have been installed at cramped locations to provide temporary relief.

The TRIHMS director, Dr Moji Jini, assured that the cooling systems would be restored by evening after technicians from the AC manufacturing firm attended to the defective compressors. He promised strict measures to avoid such a situation in the future.

Dr. Moji Jini added, “We have installed central AC in this block 2 building in our hospital to cater cooling system in 6 floors. For this centralised cooling system, a chiller has been installed. Due to existing global warming this year, our state capital also witnessed high temperatures which led to much long use of these machines to combat heat in this OPD building which led to the malfunction of one compressor out of 4 which was sent to other state for servicing after dismantling. Remaining 3 compressors worked round the clock but again the second one failed due to excessive load letting to complete malfunction of the ac system.”