delhi

Updated: Dec 13, 2016 10:39 IST

The Delhi government has bought 125 new ventilators, life support systems, which will be installed across 36 Delhi government hospitals in the next 15 or 20 days, chief minister Arvind Kejriwal said on Monday.

Currently, there are 80 ventilators in Delhi government-run hospitals, according to the tweet by Kejriwal.

These 80 ventilators had to cater to patients in over 10,000 beds. As per the norms there should be 2,000 ventilators for as many patient beds.

“What is worse, in several of the 10,000 beds in the government hospitals, more than one person is admitted. This means, there is a perpetual shortage of ventilators in government hospitals. And, it is very costly in private hospitals,” said a doctor from Delhi government hospital, on condition of anonymity.

At a private hospital, patients might have to shell out R8,000 to R15,000 per day for a ventilator.

The central procurement agency (CPA) had floated tenders for the 125 ventilators last year to improve the emergency care facilities in Delhi.

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The “imported” ventilators were received by the Lok Nayak hospital 10 days ago. “The ventilators have arrived and are waiting to be installed, which might take some time. Out of the 125 ventilators, Lok Nayak hospital will get 45,” said Dr JC Passey, medical director of Lok Nayak hospital.

Currently, the hospital has only 41 ventilators for nearly 2,000 beds.

A ventilator is a life-support machine that “breathes” for a patient who is physically unable to breathe or is breathing insufficiently. It is required after certain surgeries, when a patient is in coma and if the patient is suffering from serious lung conditions.

In its absence, patients are kept alive using ambu bags, a hand-held device attached with a mask which has to be pumped at regular intervals to allow patients to breathe.