Two Different Takes On Fixing A Switchboard

For reasons best known to all who read newspapers, contractors often do a shoddy job when they do civil, electrical and interior decorative work for government and civic bodies. I don't know which of those reasons applied to the contractor who did the job of restoration and renovation of the hospital building. The electric switches fitted by him did not remain OK for long. They came off the walls. Then their front panels came off the bases. The local electricians would not touch them because they were told that the contractor would fix them. The contractor would not touch them because for reasons best known to him and those who made the payment, the total payment was done without asking the users about their satisfaction with the work.

One switch box in the emergency OT needed fixing of the front panel over the box. After waiting for a long time, I offered to fix it, since no one else would do so. I got the chief nurse to give me a thin wire, which they got off an old broom. I put its turns around the base and front panel, and tightened its tips together by twisting them together with pliers. It looked as follows.

It worked satisfactorily for a few weeks. But the people who pulled plugs out of the switch boxes did not push the front panel back while pulling. As a result the remaining part of the front panel came off. They did not have any more wire from any broom, and they did not have me around. So they adopted the usual technique that is used in the hospital to bind any two or more things together.. They stuck the loose parts together with adhesive sticking plaster, a very expensive stuff used to stick dressings over surgical wounds. Then it looked as follows.

I am sure there are many places in the world just like ours. In case they do not have innovative people like our people, this post should help them.