News and notices. January 27, 2014

How to ensure your eye operations go well during a power cut

It is that time of year again: rains have come and gone, it is dry, and it seems the electricity generating industry is coming to another crisis. We are 90 minutes into our main operating list and doing well. Unexpectedly, the music from the radio cuts, and so do the lights from the microscopes. In the sudden silence we realise there is another power cut and the hospital generator is not working. Do we tell the people waiting to come back another day?

Dr Brian Savage, ophthalmologist at Mvumi Hospital, Dodoma, Tanzania gives some practical suggestions in Keep on operating: how to deal with power cuts.