LAHORE: As many as 77 ventilators have been found out of order in various state-run hospitals of Punjab.

As a life-saving facility, the ventilator is taken as a last remedy for serious patients of coronavirus. Two persons have died and 40 new cases of Covid-19 emerged in Lahore during the last 24 hours.

The Punjab government seems indifferent towards the plight of the patients because it has managed to procure only 20 ventilators since the outbreak of the virus in the province.

According to official figures, of the 77 ventilators, 37 are not working in the hospitals located in south Punjab. Twenty are in the Nishtar Hospital, Multan and nine in the Shaikh Zayed Hospital, Rahim Yar Khan.

Similarly, 26 ventilators are out of order in the major teaching hospitals of the provincial capital where the influx of coronavirus patients is alarmingly high.

An official privy to the information said the health authorities seemed to be least interested in making procurement of the ventilators amid health emergency. Quoting medical experts, he said, during normal days an estimated 5-10 per cent of total patients required critical care in the form of ventilator support. However, this ratio has increased manifold during epidemic of Covid as the number of confirmed patients of the virus and serious ones was increasing particularly in Punjab, he said.

According to the official figures, only 1,245 ventilators are available in Punjab’s public sector hospitals (including 77 out of order ventilators).

The official said 85pc of these remained occupied all the time to treat the critical patients (other than the Covid-19 infected patients). The Punjab government while relaxing rules had ordered the health authorities to make procurement of ventilators on an emergency basis to start treatment of serious patients. However, the health authorities made inordinate delay in the process.

One of the major reasons is said to be the shortage of ventilators that meet the specifications given by the health departments. The China-made ventilators are available whereas the health department prefers American, Japanese and European ones. He said the specialized healthcare & medical education department postponed/cancelled the tender as being non-responsive.

The health department decided to go for tender when the participating firms refused to provide the ventilators after 22 weeks against the department’s deadline/request of four weeks. The firms were of the view that the travel restrictions had made it almost impossible to import ventilators to meet the requirement of the country (Pakistan).

The specialized healthcare & medical education department was to make procurement of 200 ventilators during the epidemic.

Health Secretary Nabeel Awan said the National Disaster Management Authority (NDMA) was also making central procurement of the ventilators for the provinces. He said the health department would accept the equipment if provided by the NDMA besides making procurement at provincial level.

“We have our standards for procurement. We seek only North American, European and Japanese ventilators as per our procurement policy,” he said.

Similarly, the primary & secondary healthcare department has purchased 20 ventilators.

According to the official figures released on Wednesday, 17 patients got critical in Punjab’s state-run health facilities out of the 103 people tested positive for the virus during the last 24 hours. With the new patients, total number of the confirmed cases of the virus in Punjab reached 4,358 on Wednesday.

Of these cases, 22 were the members of the Tableeghi Jamaat quarantined at various centres across the province.

Published in Dawn, April 23rd, 2020