Shortage of ventilators puts hundreds of lives at stake

Islamabad : Acute shortage of ventilators at public sector hospitals in the twin cities of Islamabad and Rawalpindi puts hundreds of lives at stake every month while the government authorities have done almost nothing to facilitate poor patients.

The severity of the problem can be gauged by the fact that only Medical Intensive Care Unit of Pakistan Institute of Medical Sciences has received well over 100 requests for ventilator supported beds in last three days from patients already admitted in wards of various hospitals in the twin cities.

The MICU has only 10 ventilators that remain occupied throughout the year and the same is the condition of ventilator supported beds in Surgical ICU that has 13 ventilators in all. Data collected by ‘The News’ reveals that not a single ventilator has been added to MICU or SICU at PIMS in 2018.

It is important that five major public sector hospitals in the twin cities including PIMS, Federal Government Services Hospital (Polyclinic), Holy Family Hospital, Benazir Bhutto Hospital and District Headquarters Hospital have not more than 70 ventilators in all at their medical and surgical ICUs. These hospitals are supposed to cater to the needs of well over two million people living in the twin cities and their outskirts.

All the ventilator supported beds at PIMS remain occupied and in last three days, the number of requests from patients requiring ventilator is well over 200 while over 100 requests are for ventilators in medical ICU, said Deputy Director at PIMS Dr. Wasim Ahmed Khawaja while talking to ‘The News’.

He said the PIMS Executive Director Dr. Amjad Mehmood has already sent request to the concerned government authorities to establish a new intensive care department so that ventilators and intensive care beds can be increased as per need. Any time, we have 15 to 20 patients from other hospitals on waiting list for ventilators in surgical and medical ICUs, he said.

Ventilator is a machine that is used to provide breathing support mechanically to patients who are unable to breathe normally or incapable of breathing sufficiently, in most of the cases due to malfunctioning of lungs.

Private hospitals in the region charge Rs80,000 to Rs100,000 per day including bed, consultant, ventilator and drugs charges so it is hardly possible for poor patients to have facility at the private set-ups, said Dr. Khawaja. PIMS do not charge any fee for ventilator, bed, and consultant or even for drugs, he said.

He added that the concerned authorities should instruct private hospitals to provide facility of ventilator free of cost to deserving patients. Authorities should bound private hospitals to reserve a fixed percentage of ventilator supported beds for poor patients, he said.