ISLAMABAD - The Pakistan Institute of Medical Sciences (PIMS) on Monday demanded accessories of the ventilators provided by National Disaster Management Authority (NDMA) as the hospital was unable to make ventilators functional without additional medical devices.
The NDMA last week had provided 12 ventilators to the hospital. Officials at PIMS said that the hospital administration though had made a demand of the ventilators to the NDMA however, didn’t give complete list of the additional medical devices required making the ventilators functional.
Officials said that the ventilators provided to the PIMS are not functional now unless the accessories are provided.
The receipt voucher of the NDMA said that the hospital was provided 11 Ventilator V6-70, 12 V PAP (three Gorges), 30 Philip Cardiac ICU monitors and one non-portable ventilator VG-70. Officials also said that the availability of ventilators is not the single issue at PIMS as the hospital is facing shortage of specialised health officials who can operate the ventilators.
“There is shortage of paramedics, nurses in specialised care to operate the ventilators and also the accessories of the ventilators,” official said.
Officials also added that the hospital has demanded doctors (specialists), nurses, infusion pumps, monitors and lower paramedics to operate the ventilators.
“Non-availability of this balance strength means that hospitals are lagging the capacity building and the available equipment will be worthless if there will notbe any specialized health professionals to operate that machinery,” official said. Officials said that so far PIMS has 24 ventilators including 12 provided by NDMA and eight ventilators are occupied by the patients who are critical and rest are vacant.
According to the documents, 43 patients are admitted in PIMS including 16 from Islamabad region while 27 from other areas. It said that five patients admitted are clinically stable, while 31 are on oxygen.
The document said that eight patients are on ventilators in PIMS, two of the patients are from Islamabad while six are from other regions.
On the other hand the number of novel coronavirus (COVID-19) cases in the city has surged to 2589 with 171 cases reported in previous 24 hours while the death toll in the city also reached 28.
The number of recovered cases in Islamabad is 169.
Responding to The Nation on the issue of ventilators Deputy Director (DD) PIMS Dr. MinhajSiraj said that 12 ventilators received from NDMA are fully functioning and have been installed in the COVID-19 ward-B. He said that the hospital just needs a few accessories which will be provided by evening hopefully.
Meanwhile, National Disaster Management Authority (NDMA) in a statement released on the issue said that the ventilators provided to Pakistan Institute of Medical Sciences (PIMS) are in working condition, and the hospital administration has also asked for more accessories.
The statement said that these medical devices demanded by the PIMS hospital are not part of the ventilators and it was also not included in the procurement list provided to the NDMA.
The statement said that NDMA is also arranging the accessory devices demanded by the PIMS. It said that PIMS has been provided 24 ventilators and 30 digital screens.
Earlier, the NDMA statement regarding the supply of ventilators to PIMS had stated that 24 ventilators are being given to the capital’s hospital.
The ventilators provided are of two types according to the press release. Half of them are the portable vapour ventilators while the rest are special ICU 12 VG70 ventilators.