Ventilators
Society of Critical Care, a rough tally of medical devices deployed across the country suggests active ventilators may be around 40,000 and are mostly deployed in government medical colleges and private hospitals in metros, state capitals and semi-metro towns.
“If there is an unreasonable surge, we will definitely have huge problem. We have 20% the number of ICUS South Korea has as a result of chronic underfunding. We need to expand testing, identify the infected sooner, and treat them effectively to delay their getting into a critical stage. It’s the same strategy we followed for HIV and AIDS,” said Sujatha Rao, former health secretary and director general, National AIDS Control Organisation, ministry of health and family welfare.
South Korea has been widely held up as an example of a country that has successfully tackled the virus.
Data f r om China s hows around 15 % Covid-19 patients get sick enough to need hospitalisation and 5% require ventilator support in ICU.
If these patients do not get the device, they are likely to die.
High fatality rates in Italy and Iran are partly blamed on lack of access to ICUS. “Nobody has enough ventilators, no one will be able to cope. We have 100 people on ventilators at any given time. Even cancelling elective surgeries in hospitals to free up ICU beds will not be enough because there is a huge shortfall,” said Dr Yatin Mehta, chairman of critical care at Medanta.
“Dealing with a surge will be a challenge, so the strategy is to delay spikes in numbers so that fewer people get infected, which will lower the number of people needing critical care all at once. That’s why measures like janta curfew and social isolation are very effective in preventing transmission,” said Dr Chaudhry, who is also the head of the department of pulmonary & critical care medicine, Post Graduate Institute of Medical Sciences (PGIMS) Rohtak.
India has banned exports of ventilators, cancelled elective surgeries to keep ICU beds on standby, and imposed a people’s curfew on Sunday to socially isolate people. In 2019, governmentrun hospitals were the biggest procurers of ventilators, with the public sector HLL Lifecare Ltd placing an order for 1,286 units.