Emergency, other critical units at GPHC without power for hours

At the Georgetown Public Hospital on Thursday, patients sat in waiting areas and walked in dark hallways for hours after a power shutdown just after dawn crippled operations in key sections, including Accident and Emergency.

Other sections that remained without power at lunch were the Intensive Care Unit, Cardiac Intensive Care Unit, the recovery department, specialist clinics, Burn Unit and the pharmacy.

According to witnesses, a loud explosion was heard from inside a section of the hospital and then there was smoke coming from a room housing electrical components.

Public Relations Officer Mitzy Campbell said a breaker at the hospital tripped and that caused the outage and the smoke which was seen coming from a panel.

When News Room visited the hospital, medical staff were seen using their phones to light hallways.

Campbell said there wasn’t an official count as to how many patients were affected but the electrical department is currently working to restore power. She said that procedures have been put in place to have patients moved if the problem persists.

“Patients fully understand.

“People who would have come to the clinic they understand we had a breakdown. Some of them are waiting for it to be fixed some of them decided to leave and come back another day,” Campbell added.

Patients were informed that they will be able to engage with their doctors but were asked to be patient since the power outage has affected the delivery of service.

Patients who were scheduled to do tests were informed that that would not be possible until power is restored.

Up to 11 am, power had not been restored.