Islamabad: Federal capital’s largest public hospital, the Pakistan Institute of Medical Sciences, is without electricity from 10 in the morning on Friday, leaving the entire facility in darkness and bringing patient care to a near standstill. By the time this report was filed, the outage continued and almost every critical function of the hospital had come to a halt.
Officials said a major fault in the external electricity supply system near the hospital triggered the breakdown. Teams from the power company were still working on the fault, but no formal explanation had been issued. Only the Emergency Department was running on a generator, while the rest of the hospital remained without power for hours.
A visit to the hospital showed wards, OPDs and procedure rooms in complete blackout. Dozens of planned procedures could not be performed. Surgeries were suspended and Interventions were halted. Radiology services were down and diagnostic machines remained off.
Patients who needed urgent imaging, dialysis or operative care were either turned away, diverted to private hospitals or asked by attendants to seek treatment elsewhere.
Hospital administrators did not respond to repeated requests for an official statement. One senior official, speaking off the record, said the administration was in contact with the electricity supply corporation and had been told that power might be restored around eight or nine in the evening. Until then, doctors said, PIMS would remain largely non-functional, with patient care badly disrupted across the board.