E-Paper
No ventilator facility in govt hospitals of 4 Punjab districts
A patient may have to pay ₹1,000 a day for facility at a state-run healthcare centre while private ones charge from ₹15,000-25,000 for the same
No government-run hospital in Bathinda, southern Punjab’s largest city, is equipped with ventilators to treat critically ill Covid-19 patients even as the pandemic is already into its second year.
This despite the fact that the assembly constituencies state cabinet ministers Manpreet Singh Badal and Gurpreet Singh Kangar represent in the Punjab assembly are in Bathinda district. As a result, patients ailing with level-3 infection are forced to shell out 25 times for life support in private hospitals.
Even the All India Institute of Medical Sciences (AIIMS), Bathinda, a central government-run healthcare facility, started ventilator facility only on Friday. The hospitals in the district, including private facilities, have about 700 beds for level-2 (needing oxygen support and level-3 patients wherein critically ill are put on ventilator support.
Also, the ventilator facility is not available in government-run health care facilities in Mohali, Moga and Fatehgarh Sahib districts. Doctors say a patient may have to pay ₹1,000 a day for ventilator facility at a government hospital while private centres charge from ₹15,000-25,000 for the same.
Government hospitals in Moga district earlier had two ventilators which were given to the Faridkot Medical College last year. The government hospitals in the district have 79 beds for level-2 patients. Therefore, all critical patients are referred to GMC Faridkot.
“It is an utter failure of the state government that government sector hospitals were not equipped with ventilators. The government claims to have spent a whopping ₹1,000 crore to strengthen healthcare infrastructure since the Covid outbreak. Bathinda is a glaring example of deplorable facilities in civil hospitals,” said public health activist Dr Vitull K Gupta, also president of Association of Physicians of India (Malwa chapter).
Even as there are eight civil hospitals in Fatehgarh Sahib district, none has ventilator facility for Covid-19 patients. Critical patients are either shifted to Gian Sagar Medical College or Patiala-based Rajindra Hospital. Fatehgarh Sahib MP Amar Singh has given grant to the district administration to arrange ventilators.
Not even a single government hospital in Mohali district, which is represented in the assembly by state health minister Balbir Singh Sidhu, has a ventilator.
(Inputs by Vishal Rambani and Harmandeep Singh)
