Over 60% ventilators at Faridkot medical college non-functional

At a time when hospitals are facing shortage of ventilators for Covid patients, 73 of the 119 lifesaving machines at Guru Gobind Singh Medical College (GGSMCH), Faridkot, are not working due to multiple defects or are of “inferior” quality.

Most of the defective ventilators were received under the PM Cares Fund, said officials. The hospitals also wrote to the Baba Farid University of Health Sciences (BFUHS) urging officials to get the ventilators repaired.

A GGSMCH official said that they received 80 ventilators under the PM Cares Fund last year but most of these are defective. “Six ventilators stopped working on Monday following some technical glitch. Of the 73 non-functional ventilators, 71 were received under the PM Cares Fund,” said an official.

With only 46 ventilators working, the GGSMCH staring at crisis to provide treatment to critical patients. Presently, 40 patients, including critical Covid patients, are on ventilator support at the Faridkot hospital, which means only six ventilators are left.

GGSMCH medical superintendent Dr Shilekh Mittal said due to multiple defects, 73 ventilators are not working. “We have informed the higher authorities and a team of engineers will visit the hospital on Wednesday. We are trying our best to provide treatment to every patient, but if ventilators are not repaired on time, we may face a shortage of lifesaving machines as number of critical patients is on the rise,” he said.

BFUHS vice-chancellor Dr Raj Bahadur said they have raised these issues and conveyed that the quality of the ventilators under PM Cares Fund is inferior. “Otherwise also, when they are used for the patients, snag in working appear frequently, so these cannot be subjected to patients till we have a comprehensive repair mechanism,” he said.

“Chief secretary in the last video conference has approved the hiring of engineers or technicians for repairing ventilators. We should have a long-term comprehensive maintenance contract with the agency, which has provided these PM Care Fund ventilators,” said Dr Raj Bahadur.