Indore: Mechanical Ventilation Workshop; doctors, staff learn methods to save patients

Indore (Madhya Pradesh): Indian Society of Critical Care Medicine (Indore Branch) in association with the Department of Critical Care Medicine, Choithram Hospital and Research Centre organised a mechanical ventilation workshop to provide hands-on-training to the doctors and staff on how to use the ventilators.

“A large number of ventilators have been procured by the hospitals but they don’t have the skilled staff to operate those ventilators. Now, we will have to be prepared for any such situation that might arise for which continuous training of staff is important,” director of mechanical ventilation workshop Dr Anand Sanghi said

According to Dr Sanjay Dhanuk, putting a patient on a ventilator is simple, but taking them off is challenging on its own. So every member of the ICU staff who uses a ventilator must be familiar with how to use the equipment.

He said that just as a licence is mandatory to run a vehicle, similarly a licence should also be required to operate a ventilator.

Dr Pradeep Bhattacharya, the director of RIMS Ranchi, said that a lot of cutting-edge ventilators have been designed recently that can recognise a patient's breathing rhythm and deliver oxygen as needed. Nonetheless, this does not imply that the machine will do all tasks.

“Different diseases have different effects on each patient. Even if the patient's illness is more or less, there is a need to change the setting of the ventilator, for which it is necessary to have an expert doctor,” he said. Many doctors from different hospitals participated in the training session.