12 ventilators gathering dust likely to be operational soon
District admn entered into a MoU with the Central Coal Fields Limited and obtained an additional fund of ₹90 lakh for setting up an ICU
LATEHAR: Altogether 12 ventilators gathering dust at Latehar Sadar Hospital for past five months are set to be operational at a Level-I intensive care unit (ICU), as the health department is building a sixbed ICU at sadar hospital, district headquarters.
However, the question that still remains is that who will run these sophisticated machines as there are no trained doctors and paramedics available.
After the information about the health officials failing to make use of the ventilators was leaked in April this year, the Latehar deputy commissioner (DC) Abu Imran intervened and lined up for the construction of an ICU in Latehar district. The health department had also failed to utilise an amount of ₹18 lakh sent from the PM Care Fund for installation of ventilators.
The district administration entered into a MoU with the Central Coal Fields Limited (CCL) and obtained an additional fund of ₹90 lakh for setting up an ICU, first of its kind in the entire district.
Latehar civil surgeon (CS) Dr Santosh Kumar Srivastava said, “The civil work for setting up a Level-I ICU at sadar hospital is going in full swing. We are
THE HEALTH DEPARTMENT HAS ALSO FAILED TO UTILISE AN AMOUNT OF ₹18 LAKH SENT FROM THE PM CARE FUND FOR INSTALLATION OF VENTILATORS
right now preparing to set up six to eight beds with possibility of extending its capacity to 12 beds in future.”
“We already have ventilators and funds for purchasing equipments like ABG machines and other gadgets. In addition, we have also written to the state government demanding doctors and trained man power for handling ICU as there in no trained staff here,” said civil surgeon.
Meanwhile, the district administration in a bid to overcome the staff crunch have
selected nurses and multipurpose health workers from the district and imparted them online training in handling ventilators, oxygen supply and other ICU related jobs.
Dr SK Singh, who retired from government service and runs a private hospital said, “For the time being, we have an MD (Anesthesia) who can manage the ICU in Latehar but certainly, specially trained personnel are required to run such units smoothly.”
Meanwhile, expressing displeasure over the ventilators lying unused for such long period, Chatra MP Representative Rajan Tiwary said, “First, the ventilators received from PM Care were not used for months. Now there is not especially trained staff for running the ICU. We demand from the government to deploy trained nurses and doctors to run the ICU that is being constructed here so that the poor patients can really be benefitted.”