Even after Chief Minister J. Jayalalithaa inaugurated the new Centenary Building at the Coimbatore Medical College Hospital (CMCH) through video conferencing from Chennai more than a month ago, patients in most of the overcrowded old wards continue to deal with congestion and inconvenience, with hospital authorities not using the new building due to lack of proper electricity facilities.

The situation of patients is pathetic in most of the wards as even heart patients are found lying on stretchers, unattended, as doctors find it difficult to check on everyone due to the excess crowd.

While patients are usually sent home and asked to come another day due to overworked doctors, the conditions of those who are admitted is equally bad too with them being left unattended in extremely unhygienic conditions, with dirty water running on the floor.

Pondering over the situation, a sexagenarian woman who had come for heart check-up said that in addition to the pitiable condition at the hospital, the patients are also subjected to rude treatment and verbal abuse by the hospital staff. “We are made to wait for hours to get tested and for scans. With the place being so congested and dirty, our situation just gets worse,” she said.

Admitting that the newly inaugurated building, with more than 7000 beds, continues to remain unused, a higher official from the CMCH said that the officials were waiting for the EB wing of the Public Works Department to provide uninterrupted power supply so that the new building can be utilized.

“We have made everything ready. We are just waiting for the clearance from the EB department because we cannot run the facilities without generator. Imagine a patient is on ventilator and suddenly the power goes out. If we don’t restore the electricity soon enough, the patient would die,” the official said. “We can start immediately once the uninterrupted power supply is given,” he added.

Officials of the PWD were not available for comments.