5 days ago
Lok Nayak Hospital's neurosurgery ICU gets 5 portable ventilators
Lok Nayak Hospital's neurosurgery department on Thursday installed five portable ventilators at its ICU unit and secured three ventilator beds of ICU units of other departments for its patients.
Portable or transport ventilators are mechanical ventilation devices designed specifically for emergency or transport scenarios, while fixed ventilators are permanently positioned respiratory support.
This comes after The Indian Express reported on Thursday that as per official records, only one of the 15 ventilators was functional in the neurosurgery department of the Delhi's government's 2,153-bed Lok Nayak Hospital — the largest such facility in the national capital.
Weekly status reports maintained by the hospital showed that there were 14 ventilators in the department till Tuesday — none of them functional. One functional ventilator was added on Wednesday.
According to records, ten of these ventilators have been non-functional for eight months, two for about a year and two more for over two years. In 12 of these ventilators, 'multiple spares are defective' and need to be 'replaced as per service report'.
The two ventilators that have been non-functional for over two years were procured during Covid from the PM CARES Fund.
Delhi Health Minister Pankaj Kumar Singh and Lok Nayak Hospital Director B L Chaudhary did not respond to queries from The Indian Express regarding the ventilators.
Official sources said that Danish Ashraf, Special Secretary, Delhi Health and Family Welfare department, visited the hospital around 3 pm on Thursday for an inspection of the neurosurgery department's ICU.
'Medical Director Dr B L Chaudhary was also on round,' the official source said.
The hospital also procured 18 ventilators from Rajiv Gandhi Super Speciality Hospital that are yet to be installed.
Sources in the hospital said the instructions have been issued to repair the existing ventilators in the next 10 days. An official said: 'Instructions related to repair and maintenance of ventilators were passed earlier as well. Now, another set of instructions have been issued to speed up the process. We coordinate with manufacturing firms for annual maintenance of the machines.'
Sources in the department also said that a lack of ventilators for almost a year led to a drop in the number of surgeries performed each month.
Before the ventilators stopped working, an average of 30-35 elective surgeries and 20-25 emergency neurosurgeries were conducted in two operation theatres every month, the sources said. 'The number has come down to an average of 20 elective and 10 emergency surgeries per month… Cases are being prioritised and shortlisted. Cases which do not require ventilation are preferred,' said a senior doctor.
Sources also said that patients who are operated upon in the neurosurgery department and require ventilator support were being shifted to the general surgery department's ICU, which has 15 ventilator beds. This ICU also accommodates patients who have undergone surgeries in the orthopaedic and medicine departments.
