I had had no occasion to examine the electric wiring done in the examination room of that ward, except that of the examination light. It had seemed OK. It came as a surprise to me when I happened to look at the back of the storage shelves. The contractor, as per the design of the architectural consultant for the heritage building, had put up an electric board with sockets behind the shelves, as shown below. The arrows indicate the vertical divider of the storage shelf.
"Sister, how do you use this electric socket?" I asked the nurse on duty. "This three-pin socket has its one hole on one side of the vertical dividing stone slab of the shelf, upper hole almost behind the divider, and the other lower hole is also behind the divider, but obliquely accessible from the other side. How do you put a three-pin plug into it?"
"We don't" she said. "We have never had occasion to use it."
"So the contractor got his payment, the consultant got 10% of that amount as his fee, and the users are without the benefit of the great work!" I said.
"It must be lack of coordination between the civil and electrical contractors" my Assistant Professor said.
"The consultant made great drawings in Autocad" I said "with precision of millimeters. The civil and electrical contractors do not need to coordinate. They just have to work according to the drawings."
"Well, then what went wrong?"
"God knows. Perhaps the consultant wanted to make the work suit the hospital environment. Perhaps he thought this was a psychiatric ward, and he put a split socket to suit the split personalities of the patients in the ward."
"Sir, he knew it was an obstetric ward."
"I know he knew" I said. "I was just joking."
"Sister, how do you use this electric socket?" I asked the nurse on duty. "This three-pin socket has its one hole on one side of the vertical dividing stone slab of the shelf, upper hole almost behind the divider, and the other lower hole is also behind the divider, but obliquely accessible from the other side. How do you put a three-pin plug into it?"
"We don't" she said. "We have never had occasion to use it."
"So the contractor got his payment, the consultant got 10% of that amount as his fee, and the users are without the benefit of the great work!" I said.
"It must be lack of coordination between the civil and electrical contractors" my Assistant Professor said.
"The consultant made great drawings in Autocad" I said "with precision of millimeters. The civil and electrical contractors do not need to coordinate. They just have to work according to the drawings."
"Well, then what went wrong?"
"God knows. Perhaps the consultant wanted to make the work suit the hospital environment. Perhaps he thought this was a psychiatric ward, and he put a split socket to suit the split personalities of the patients in the ward."
"Sir, he knew it was an obstetric ward."
"I know he knew" I said. "I was just joking."
