Power outage causes temporary shutdown of sections of GPHC

Apr 12, 2019 News

The Georgetown Public Hospital Corporation.

A circuit breaker tripped around 08:00 hours yesterday at the Georgetown Public Hospital Corporation [GPHC] causing a temporary halt to the operation of a few departments.
The most affected department might have been the laboratory, according to the hospital’s Public Relations Officer, Ms. Mitzy Campbell.
Ms. Campbell in chronicling the state of affairs said that reports suggest that when the circuit breaker tripped a loud explosion was heard and smoke was seen emanating from the location.
A circuit breaker is an automatically operated electrical switch designed to protect an electrical circuit from damage caused by excess current from an overload or short circuit. Its basic function is to interrupt current flow after a fault is detected.
“When we found out the areas that were affected, we proceeded to inform staff who in turn informed patients that we had got a slight breakdown and we would not be able to attend to them readily,” Campbell shared.
There were reports reaching this publication which suggested that a ruckus had started at the medical institution as a result of the situation but according to Campbell, “some patients left on their own accord and some people waited around.”
According to Campbell, it was imperative that the operation be halted since the damaged circuit breaker not only affected the normal flow of electricity to the institution but also its back-up generator system.
The Public Relations Officer, however, noted that the hospital was able to quickly put in place a contingency plan, which she said, was intended to deal with any emergency cases. This, she explained, would have meant the hospital having to fund any care needed for patients outside of the public health institution, which is in fact the main referral centre for Region Four but is often the institution of choice for many patients who even reside outside of the region.
Commenting on yesterday’s power outage, Campbell revealed that when the situation was returned to normalcy by afternoon, the hospital had no need to implement its contingency plan.
This was owing to the efficiency of Guyana Power and Light Inc. technicians who were called in to address the outage situation.
Campbell said, too, that ranks from the Guyana Fire Service were summoned by hospital officials as a precautionary measure.
“By early afternoon, some people [patients] were still waiting around to be attended to, and I understand that in some of the units the electricity had been restored and they are still doing a little bit of repair work,” Campbell disclosed.
The GPHC is the country’s premier public health institution, which is mandated to offer free services to patients.

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