Mumbai: Even after the Maharashtra government provided 67 ventilators to St George Hospital, which was recently converted into a dedicated CoVID-19 hospital, the authorities are yet to make use of all the facilities.
While confirmed sources from the hospital say that only 12 ventilators are currently in use, the hospital authorities claim that at least 24 of them are operational.
At present, 40 patients are admitted in St George Hospital. Notably, not all the hospitals in the city have ventilators for treating coronavirus patients.
But St George, which has a capacity of 300 beds and despite having 100 ventilators, is not using all of them, as on date. It may be further noted that the government has also given Rs 20 crore funds to the hospital authorities to provide all the possible facilities to the patients.
According to the medical superintendent of the hospital, the work is in progress and all the facilities would soon be used. It may not be out of place to mention that oxygen and ventilators are vital for treating severely ailing coronavirus patients.
A senior doctor, attached to St George, on condition of anonymity, informed the Free Press Journal that only 12 ventilators are operational. "A total of 67 ventilators were provided to us. But as on date, we have managed to use only 12 of them. The remaining ventilators are yet to be assembled," the doctor said.
"We are unable to give the benefit of ventilators to patients in the hospital as the assembling work is proceeding at a slow pace," the doctor added. On the contrary, Dr Akash Khobragade, medical superintendent narrated another story. "We did not receive all the 67 ventilators at one time. We received them phase wise.
First lot was 20, followed by 30, and so on," Dr Khobragade clarified. The medical superintendent even trashed the allegation of work going on at a slow pace.
"It is incorrect to say so. In fact, work is going on a war footing mode. At present, 24 ventilators are working and the number will increase to 40 in a day or two," he said.
"The work is getting a bit delayed because not everyone is ready to work in the wards where coronavirus patients are kept. We have to assemble ventilators in all the wards of the hospital," he added.
Further, Dr Khobragade informed that work is on to increase the capacity of oxygen in the hospital, as at least 100 beds would be having ventilators.
