KGH blackout exposes Govt failure: YS Jagan

Tadepalli, Nov 7: Taking to X, former Chief Minister YS Jagan Mohan Reddy expressed deep anguish and anger over the shocking incident at Visakhapatnam King George Hospital (KGH), where a 12-hour power outage left critically ill patients, newborns, and pregnant women struggling without electricity and oxygen support. He said that this incident exposes the collapse of governance under Chief Minister Chandrababu Naidu, who speaks of “vision” and “online governance” while being unable to ensure uninterrupted power in a major government hospital serving lakhs of poor families.

YS Jagan noted that doctors and nurses were forced to treat patients under mobile flashlights and candles, with families in severe distress, and pointed out allegations that a woman died due to oxygen interruption. “When power fails at 12:30 PM and the government does not respond till midnight, it is not negligence, it is abandonment of the poor,” he said. He questioned why emergency power backup and crisis protocol failed in a 2,000-bed hospital with 1,700 in-patients, describing it as a breach of public trust and human dignity.

He slammed the government for systematically dismantling public healthcare, shutting down Village Clinics and PHCs, scrapping Family Doctor services, removing specialists from CHCs, stopping Nadu-Nedu works in teaching hospitals, freezing medical recruitment, starving Aarogyasri with pending dues, crippling 108/104 services for political contracts, and now attempting to hand over newly built government medical colleges to private interests.

Contrasting this with YSRCP governance, YS Jagan reminded that KGH was strengthened with modern casualty units, 200-bed CSR block, MRI and ultrasound upgrades, mobile X-ray units, online diagnostics, critical care wards, NICU & PICU, upgraded cardiology wing, cancer care facilities, additional ambulances, and improved waiting shelters. “We built KGH to ensure world-class treatment for the poor. Today, even maintenance and emergency systems have collapsed,” he said, referring also to months-long stoppage of cardiac surgeries due to equipment neglect.

YS Jagan also condemned visuals of medical equipment being removed from Pulivendula Teaching Hospital, calling it an act of political vendetta that hurts innocent patients. “There must be a limit to this destruction. Instead of improving public hospitals, this government is dismantling them and playing with poor people’s lives,” he warned.

He demanded accountability for the KGH blackout, an inquiry into the alleged oxygen-related death, and urgent corrective action. “Governance is not slogans. It is safeguarding lives. This government has failed the poorest of the poor, and what happened at KGH is unforgivable,” he asserted.