Month after CM’s order, new ventilators gather dust

It has been a month since Delhi Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal announced that as many as 125 new ventilators will be installed in Delhi government hospitals. Yet, most of these new machines are gathering dust in the Lok Nayak Hospital basement. In fact, 35 ventilators are to be installed in the hospital but it does not even have gas pipelines to provide oxygen, making the life-saving equipment redundant.

Similarly, 30 ventilators are to be installed in the GB Pant Hospital, five in the Baba Saheb Ambedkar Hospital, and four in Delhi government’s Sushruta Trauma Centre.

Last month, the Delhi government had purchased 125 new ventilators against a demand of 80 to fulfill the requirement at various government hospitals. CM Kejriwal then tweeted on December 12 that new ventilators would be installed within 10-12 days. The deadline of December 25 came and went but most hospitals did not receive the equipment.

Death of patients due to the shortage of ventilators in Delhi government hospitals has been a frequent phenomenon.  

The new medical emergency block of the 2,000-bed Lok Nayak Hospital is in a dire need of ventilators. Sources said ventilators are a must for any emergency department. In the absence of the equipment, patients have to opt for Ambu bags, a manual ventilation mechanism, which has several drawbacks.

A senior Delhi government official said: “The government has procured the ventilators but the installation process is extremely difficult. Every hospital should have a central gas pipeline before the medical equipment can be installed.”

Meanwhile, Lok Nayak Hospital Medical Director Dr JC Passey said the hospital was already in the process of getting a gas pipeline for the emergency block. He said the authorities were working in coordination with the National Buildings Construction Corporation (NBCC) for the gas pipeline.

“We are in touch with the NBCC regarding the gas pipeline fitting. It is a lengthy and time taking process. A tender has to be floated to get the fitting done. We are expecting to install the ventilators by the end of this month,” he said.

But the installation is not the only problem that the hospital is facing. A hospital must have one staff nurse per bed per shift (morning/evening/night). Hence, if a hospital has 20 ventilators, it should ideally have, at least, 125 staff nurses.

“There is a shortage of staff in every hospital. Purchase and installation of medical equipment is the first step. The main task, however, is to make them functional for patients. The equipment cannot be put to use till there are technicians or staffers to operate it.

Similarly, ventilators have not been installed in the Dr Baba Saheb Ambedkar Hospital and the Sushruta Trauma Centre as well. “The ventilators will be installed by next week,” said Dr Punita Mahajan, Medical Superintendent, Dr Baba Saheb Ambedkar Hospital. The GB Pant hospital has also acquired 30 ventilators but the installation process is yet to take place.

Meanwhile, sources in the Health Department said the move of buying the ventilators might land the government in trouble. “If the hospitals are not able to install the equipment due to any reason, the government will be in trouble once again. Why were the ventilators purchased if the hospitals were not even ready to use them?” a senior health official said.

Shortage of ventilators is one of the major problems in city hospitals. “Patients are often refused admission and treatment because of the lack of ventilators or staffers to operate them,” a senior doctor said, requesting anonymity.