Docs, patients sweat it out as centralised AC in OT goes bust at TvMCH

DOCTORS and patients from the Tirunelveli Medical College Hospital (TvMCH) Super Speciality Block have complained that the centralised air conditioner (AC) in the operating theatre (OT) and post-operative wards has not been working for the past 10 days.

- THINAKARAN RAJAMANI @ Tirunelveli

A senior doctor working in TvMCH told TNIE that the non-functional AC system has put patients' lives at risk, with the surgeons' sweat dripping onto the patient's organs. There are six tables in the OT and at least 30 staff, including doctors from various specialities wearing surgical aprons, conduct surgeries at each table. With no ventilation facilities, the OT solely depends on AC, as the National Medical Commission mandated. Some surgeries take five to six hours, as the facility has not been working for the past 10 days, docto