E-Paper
Staring at shortage, Chandigarh seeks more ventilators from Centre
UT health secretary Arun Gupta said the requirement of additional 30 ventilators was felt and a request had been made before the central government
Amid impending shortage of beds with ventilator support for Covid-19 patients, the Chandigarh administration has requested the central government to provide 30 more ventilators to deal with the surge in virus cases in the city.
The Covid dedicated hospitals have been able to arrange 107 such beds. However, with no let-up in the number of infections, officials say, the requirement is likely to go up.
The UT administration has also asked Post Graduate Institute of Medical Education and Research (PGIMER) to double the number of ventilator-supported beds.
Currently, there are 53 intensive care unit (ICU) beds with ventilators at PGIMER out of which 52 were occupied as of Wednesday evening. The hospital is looking after patients from across the region.
The other Covid facility, Government Medical College and Hospital, Sector 32, has been able to ramp up its ventilator bed capacity to 48, but keeping in view the surge, this may not be sufficient.
“We have asked PGIMER to increase the capacity and marshal the resources to deal with this wave. Though there are some issues, we assure that enough infrastructure will be in place even if the situation takes a more dangerous turn,” UT adviser Manoj Parida said.
UT health secretary Arun Gupta said the requirement of additional 30 ventilators was felt and a request had been made before the central government.
Even as more health equipment is being added to deal with the Covid crisis, hospitals are also dealing with workforce crunch.
“Running the ICU units requires a huge workforce and there are not enough people to deal with such kinds of emergencies. More trained staff are required for these units to function and that is still a challenge,” said a senior UT health official requesting anonymity.
