A doctor at GMC Srinagar said that despite having surplus “back-up” ventilators, the availability has remained more or less the same over the past few years.
“For running a ventilator, we need nurses, technicians and doctors, including Anesthesia specialists. The manpower availability has not increased, so there is a limit to the number of ventilators we can operate,” he said.
J&K Government last year said that 2095 ventilators had been received by the UT through various COVID19 preparedness packages. It said that 80 percent of these ventilators were fully functional and had been installed at various hospitals across districts, including the two DRDO Hospitals.
The Government said that 100 ventilators had been allocated to SMHS Hospital, 80 to Chest Diseases Hospital and many more to other major hospitals in Srinagar and other districts.
The ventilators had been procured post the Second Wave of COVID19 to augment the healthcare infrastructure across hospitals. The augmentation included those meant for pediatric and neonatal age groups.
