An elec­tri­cal black­out at the San Fer­nan­do Gen­er­al Hos­pi­tal left pa­tients hun­gry and in tears yes­ter­day. The hos­pi­tal, which ac­com­mo­dates more than 750 pa­tients, went dark around 1 pm. Be­fore the black­out, pa­tients were told that elec­tri­cal works had to be done and there would be a dis­rup­tion in sup­ply from 1 pm to 7 pm.

When the T&T Guardian vis­it­ed the hos­pi­tal around 5 pm the cor­ri­dors on the low­er floors were in com­plete dark­ness. Vis­i­tor Ra­jesh Ma­haraj, who went to Ward One, said, “You need a torch­light to go in there. The whole place dark and it is not even night time as yet.” Shan­ti Lokai wiped sweat from her brows. “It so hot in there I could not take it. I had to leave. I don’t know how they ex­pect peo­ple to stay in there.”

One the first floor of the Neo-sur­gi­cal Unit, a male pa­tient was seen bare­back on the cor­ri­dor and sweat­ing pro­fuse­ly. “I am feel­ing so sick in there. I can­not un­der­stand how there is no gen­er­a­tor. I am pray­ing that the cur­rent will come back soon,” he said. He added that the worst part of the black­out was the clo­sure of the kitchen.

“They gave us some bread and milk and said that is sup­per. We can­not get any food be­cause the kitchen is closed so we have to pray that some­one vis­its to bring us some­thing to eat,” he said.(Trinidad Guardian) …[+]