‘Patients die for want of ventilators’
DAK demands adequate ventilators to prevent further loss of lives
Doctors Association Kashmir (DAK) today hit out at authorities for lack of ventilators in hospitals which are life savers for critically ill patients.
President DAK Dr Nisar ul Hassan in a statement said it was shocking that infants, children and adults were dying in the hospitals for want of ventilators.
“There are minuscule number of ventilators in referral hospitals and peripheral health centres have no facilities of life saving equipments which leaves patients in the lurch,” Dr Hassan said in a statement here.
SKIMS has 12 ventilators and SMHS and GB Pant hospitals have 10 each that do not suffice to the huge influx of patients requiring assisted ventilation.
“There are no mandatory dedicated ventilators available for disease pandemics which was the reason for spread of H1N1 and deaths during recent swine flu outbreak,” he said.
Dr Hassan said that mechanical ventilation is life saving treatment for patients with respiratory failure, major surgeries, trauma, poisoning and critically sick neonates.
He alleged that the majority of patients who are referred from peripheral to referral hospitals for ventilation either die on way or reach hospitals in a morbid condition as the golden time which is crucial for survival of critical patients is wasted in transit.
“Most of patients in intensive care units of our referral hospitals die of ventilator-associated lung injury because of use of conventional ventilators,” he said. The advent of modern ventilators like high frequency jet ventilators and extracorporeal membrane oxygenation (ECMO), which facilitate use of lung protective ventilation, the outcome of sick patients has improved dramatically.
“Moreover these modern ventilators, which are a distant dream for us, are rescue for patients when conventional ventilation fails to support life,” Dr Hassan said, adding “It is a wakeup call for authorities to prioritize this highly sensitive issue and keep adequate ventilators available in all health centres so as to prevent further loss of precious lives.”
