Punjab: Ventilators lying unused for want of staff
Situation exposes the state health dept’s lack of preparedness to fight the pandemic
AMRITSAR/PATIALA/JALANDHAR/FARIDKOT : Ventilators in several government hospitals in Punjab are lying out of use even amid a health emergency in the wake of the second coronavirus outbreak in the state and elsewhere in the country, exposing the health department’s lack of preparedness to fight the pandemic.
In most cases, the ventilators are lying idle as the hospitals don’t have the requisite trained staff to operate them.
In Amritsar district, the government and private hospitals have 300 ventilators of which 200 are reserved for Covid-19 patients. “Of these, only 30-40 remain occupied. We are prepared for the worst scenario,” said Amritsar civil surgeon Dr Charanjit Singh.
Amritsar Government Medical College and Hospital (GMCH) medical Superintendent Dr KD Singh said, “We have 137 ventilators at the hospital, but 50 of them have not been installed yet. We are waiting for technicians to install them. The demand for oxygen beds has increased drastically in the past few days.”
A senior doctor said even as the GMCH has enough ventilators to handle rising number of cases, it is short of manpower to operate the equipment.
“For every five patients on ventilator, we need four anesthesiologists and as many as technicians and X-ray technicians besides 20 staff nurses for three shifts in a day. We don’t have enough specialist doctors. Besides, many doctors go on quarantine leave after catching the infection. We have deputed some anesthesiologists and technicians from the civil hospital here due to staff shortage,” he added.
In the neighbouring Gurdaspur district, there are only 2 ventilators at a government hospital but they are lying nonoperational in the absence of required staff.
“We refer critical level-3 Covid patients to Amritsar GMCH,” said Gurdaspur civil surgeon Dr Harbhajan Rao.
In Pathankot district, all the 18 ventilators in government hospitals are lying non-operational. Civil surgeon Dr Harbinder Singh said, “We do not have level-3 facility for Covid-19 patients in government hospitals. Also, there is no intensive care unit (ICU) at or specialist doctors to treat patients on ventilators. But we have 13 ventilators in private hospitals for Covid-19 patients.”
In Tarn Taran district, three ventilators in government hospitals are lying out of use due to staff shortage. “We have 20 level-3 beds in private hospitals but we refer patients to GMC Amritsar for ventilator support. We do not have infrastructure and doctors for treating patients on ventilators in government hospitals,” said civil surgeon Dr Rohit Mehta.
In Rupnagar district, none of the 10 ventilators in government hospitals is operational. The administration has written to the higher authorities to make arrangements so that they could handle critical patients.
Also, government hospitals in Ferozepur, Fazilka, Mansa and Muktsar districts have seven, six and four each ventilators, respectively, and all of them are not in use.
Fazilka civil surgeon Dr Harinder Singh said, “Our team of doctors is learning to use ventilators. The civil hospital may not be a designated government institute to handle a Covid patient with level-3 complications but we will try to provide them life support.”
In Jalandhar district, 45 of a total of 165 ventilators in 62 hospitals are occupied, as per details shared by the district administration. In the Jalandhar civil hospital, all of the 18 ventilators were functional with 16 of them in use, officials claimed.
Faridkot, Patiala, SBS Nagar fare better
Guru Gobind Singh Medical College and Hospital (GGSMCH), Faridkot, which caters to south Malwa districts of Bathinda, Mansa, Muktsar, Moga, Ferozepur, Fazilka and Faridkot, has six Covid-19 patients on life support system.
The hospital has 76 ventilators on standby in its 450-bed isolation facility.
GGSMCH medical superintendent Dr Shilekh Mittal said the occupancy of level-2 and level-3 beds with oxygen requirement has witnessed a sudden increase. Presently, 270 Ccovid patients, including 65 level-3 patients, are undergoing treatment at the hospital.
The Rajindra Medical College and Hospital, Patiala, has nearly 100 ventilators which health department officials claimed are functional with adequate staff to operate them. The hospital is currently getting critically ill patients from Ludhiana, Sangrur and Fatehgarh Sahib districts besides the National Capital Region (NCR).
“We are having optimum oxygen and trained staff for ventilators round the clock,” said Patiala Development Authority chief administrator Surbhi Malik, who is Covid-19 nodal officer at Rajindra Hospital.
In Shaheed Bhagat Singh Nagar district, the administration claimed that all 10 ventilators in hospitals are functional. Civil surgeon Dr Gurdeep Singh Kapoor said they have opened ventilator facilities at government hospitals for patients admitted to private hospitals for free. In Hoshiarpur district too, 10 ventilators installed at the civil hospital were functional, an official said. In Ludhiana, all 16 ventilators are occupied. (Inputs by Mandeep Kaur Narula, Vishal Rambani, Gagandeep Singh, Parteek
Singh Mahal)