50 patients in need of ventilators at top civic, govt hospitals
Several patients in urgent need of ventilators have been made to wait in the top civic and state hospitals of Mumbai as the number of patients needing life support has risen dramatically in the past two weeks. However, the number of ventilators are few.
Nearly 50 patients admitted to the Sion, Nair, KEM and JJ hospitals are presently in Intensive Care Units (ICU) without life-support, despite doctors having recommended that they be put on ventilators at the earliest.
“All ventilators are currently being used for patients and they can’t be removed till those patients’ stabilise,” said a senior doctor at Sion hospital. “Several peripheral hospitals do not have any ventilator facilities, so patients are referred to our hospital and the number needing life-support has been on the rise over the past two weeks.”
Sometimes patients have to be accommodated despite the shortage. A patient referred from the Akkalkot government hospital, who is in dire need of life-support, was expected to be admitted to Nair Hospital by Friday midnight.
A doctor on condition of anonymity said, “We sometimes have to admit a patient who has not been on the waiting list as he has been referred by some powerful politician or bureaucrat. In the case of the patient from Akkalkot, we told authorities at Akkalkot that we didn’t have any ventilator vacant, and another 10 patients were on the waiting list. Despite that, he is being sent here.”
The doctor said, “We are helpless, so we will have to put him on the Ambu bag, which will keep one doctor and a nurse engaged with him full time till he gets a machine-operated ventilator.”
A KEM Hospital doctor said, “Our situation is similar. Though we have a few more ventilators than Nair, all are occupied with a long waiting list of around 20 patients who are presently on Ambu bag support, engaging a staff of around 30.”
Doctors do not refuse to admit any of the critical patients who are referred for life-support, but as the number of patients on the waiting list remains high, the load of any new patients makes it impossible to provide life-support or Ambu bagsupport. By the time the patient gets life-support, his or her condition worsens, putting their their life in danger.”
Dr T P Lahane, dean, JJ Hospital, said, “We have 80 ventilators in the ICUs at our hospital, which is the largest for a government-run facility in the city.
Despite that, 20 patients are still on the waiting list. It is not that the number of ventilators is less at our hospital, but the rise in cases of dengue and malaria adds to the number of critical patients who need life-support in this season. The only way to tackle this could be to provide peripheral hospitals with ventilators so that the load on the major hospitals reduces. Precious lives would be saved.”
Dr Mahendra Wadiawala, chef medical Superintendent of 16 civic peripheral hospitals in the suburbs, said, “Only this month, we received 20 ventilators for 16 peripheral hospitals. We have limited ICU beds in peripherals and we are not a super-specialty hospital. If patients need super-specialty doctors, we have to send them to these four hospitals in the city. We get poor patients and obviously they don’t have any choice but to wait for the ventilators, as they cannot afford private hospitals, which charge over Rs 15,000 a day for a ventilator.”
Nearly 50 patients admitted to the Sion, Nair, KEM and JJ hospitals are presently in Intensive Care Units (ICU) without life-support, despite doctors having recommended that they be put on ventilators at the earliest.
“All ventilators are currently being used for patients and they can’t be removed till those patients’ stabilise,” said a senior doctor at Sion hospital. “Several peripheral hospitals do not have any ventilator facilities, so patients are referred to our hospital and the number needing life-support has been on the rise over the past two weeks.”
The doctor added, “Several patients in need of life support are presently put on the Ambu bag, which is a manually operated ventilator. In Ambu bag support, doctors or nurses have to continuously keep pumping the bag so that the respiratory system of the patient runs and he remains stabilised till he gets mechanical ventilator support.”
Sometimes patients have to be accommodated despite the shortage. A patient referred from the Akkalkot government hospital, who is in dire need of life-support, was expected to be admitted to Nair Hospital by Friday midnight.
A doctor on condition of anonymity said, “We sometimes have to admit a patient who has not been on the waiting list as he has been referred by some powerful politician or bureaucrat. In the case of the patient from Akkalkot, we told authorities at Akkalkot that we didn’t have any ventilator vacant, and another 10 patients were on the waiting list. Despite that, he is being sent here.”
The doctor said, “We are helpless, so we will have to put him on the Ambu bag, which will keep one doctor and a nurse engaged with him full time till he gets a machine-operated ventilator.”
A KEM Hospital doctor said, “Our situation is similar. Though we have a few more ventilators than Nair, all are occupied with a long waiting list of around 20 patients who are presently on Ambu bag support, engaging a staff of around 30.”
Doctors do not refuse to admit any of the critical patients who are referred for life-support, but as the number of patients on the waiting list remains high, the load of any new patients makes it impossible to provide life-support or Ambu bagsupport. By the time the patient gets life-support, his or her condition worsens, putting their their life in danger.”
Dr T P Lahane, dean, JJ Hospital, said, “We have 80 ventilators in the ICUs at our hospital, which is the largest for a government-run facility in the city.
Despite that, 20 patients are still on the waiting list. It is not that the number of ventilators is less at our hospital, but the rise in cases of dengue and malaria adds to the number of critical patients who need life-support in this season. The only way to tackle this could be to provide peripheral hospitals with ventilators so that the load on the major hospitals reduces. Precious lives would be saved.”
Dr Mahendra Wadiawala, chef medical Superintendent of 16 civic peripheral hospitals in the suburbs, said, “Only this month, we received 20 ventilators for 16 peripheral hospitals. We have limited ICU beds in peripherals and we are not a super-specialty hospital. If patients need super-specialty doctors, we have to send them to these four hospitals in the city. We get poor patients and obviously they don’t have any choice but to wait for the ventilators, as they cannot afford private hospitals, which charge over Rs 15,000 a day for a ventilator.”
