KARACHI, Dec 6: Ventilators, an essential requirement for any intensive care unit, are largely missing from most government as well as private hospitals in the city.

The situation is particularly alarming for the neonates born with respiratory complications or who may have developed the same during delivery process. Non availability of the facility is often noticed to cause death.

Paediatricians told APP that prolonged labour or delayed child delivery effects the respiratory centre in the brain and the infant is in little position to breathe normally.

Many of the private hospitals claiming to have the facility are found to have only one, for which they are charging around Rs10,000 per day.

Many medical centres claiming to have the facility do not have the backup support. This is more common in the public sector institutions where ventilators are often found to be lying useless due to non-availability of the required support as central oxygen supply, monitoring equipments as cardiac monitors.

Dearth of trained staff including technicians well-trained to operate ventilators and doctors in a position to use them properly is also hampering the work at many ICUs believed to have the provision for the gadget.—APP