Repeated power failures are disrupting treatment, food preparation and inpatient services at the 50-bed Palachuvadu Government Ayurveda Hospital in Piravom, Ernakulam district, according to complaints reported by patients and hospital employees to Mathrubhumi.
The hospital, which began functioning more than 25 years ago, has undergone several rounds of development and offers multiple Ayurveda departments and modern facilities. It usually has close to 50 inpatients, while more than 100 patients visit its outpatient department each day, the report said.
Despite having a three-phase electricity connection and its own generator, the hospital frequently loses power. The supply is reportedly received from the Kalluvettamadam transformer. Staff and patients said even a light wind could lead to an outage, with electricity sometimes failing on only one line.
The outages are affecting essential hospital operations. Inpatients receive all three meals from the hospital, making a reliable electricity supply necessary in the kitchen. Power is also required in treatment rooms where physiotherapy and other procedures are conducted. Patients said Panchakarma procedures, including massage, kizhi and dhara treatments, have at times been carried out by candlelight.
Hospital employees told Mathrubhumi that technical problems often prevent the generator from being used when the main supply fails. The hospital does not have a dedicated electrician post, and therapists or other employees are often required to operate the generator. This takes them away from their regular duties, according to the report.
A recent outage highlighted the operational difficulty. Electricity to the hospital failed on a Wednesday morning. Although the electricity office was informed, a lineman arrived only in the evening. The employee reportedly found that a fuse carrier near the meter had burned out and left the site. Hospital staff subsequently called an electrician to repair the fault. Several hours had passed before the specific problem was identified and resolved.
Patients said the recurring disruption was placing additional hardship on people receiving care at the government facility. They suggested that installing a transformer within the hospital premises could help address the problem, although the report did not state whether the electricity department or hospital authorities had formally approved such a measure.
The reported failure points to a basic service gap inside a public healthcare facility: medical infrastructure and treatment capacity can be undermined when the supporting electricity network is unreliable and on-site technical staffing is limited. The hospital has a backup generator, but the complaints indicate that backup capacity has not consistently translated into uninterrupted operations.
The report did not include a formal response from the electricity department or a stated timeline for a permanent solution. It identified the hospital’s connection to the Kalluvettamadam transformer, the recurring line failures and the absence of a dedicated electrician as the immediate issues raised by staff and patients.
