Standards

About three years ago the outpatient block was renovated. The architect appointed said his design was of international standard, and we had nothing to worry about. It probably was. Since I never studied architecture, I would not know. I also don’t know of which countries he was referring to. I just had a lot of experience with the working in our setup. So I asked him if the spare parts of our fluorescent tube fittings would be available when required. I had to ask because they looked different from the regular ones. “Of course,” he said “everything is available in market and also on the municipal schedule.” Since our electrical engineers had not said anything to the contrary, I had no reason to disbelieve him. The work was somehow completed, in two years instead of the promised six month period. We ran our outpatient clinics in one of our wards without cribbing, because there was no point in cribbing. This was probably the way of life as God had meant it. The tragedy was that the architect was not totally right. The spares were available in the market, but not on municipal schedule. A number of the twin tube-lights went off, and their chokes were just not available. The room where I saw patients was in almost darkness. The electricians wouldn’t even take off chokes from other well-lit areas and put them where they were needed. Perhaps it was power-saving measure of the institute, since recently the electricity bills had shot up and there was a circular to cut down on the consumption of electricity. Finally one of my professors who saw patients in the same room on another weekday threatened not to see any patient until the tubes were made functional. That worked and those 4 tubes were made functional. The chokes are still not on municipal schedule. I wish they appoint architects who work with Indian standards in our place.