38 hospitals run by the Delhi government together have about 10,000 beds but are equipped with only 206 ventilators
Three-year-old Farhan Ali, a child suffering from a rare neurological disorder called Leigh Syndrome was kept on Ambu-bag (artificial manual breathing unit) due to a shortage of ventilators at Delhi's Lok Nayak Hospital. It was only after the intervention by the Delhi High Court that the hospital provided him a ventilator. DNA looks at the choking numbers of ventilators in the hospitals across the city.
Families of several critical patients are many times handed over Ambu-bags, that assist artificial respiration and need to be pressed about 15 times a minute. This makes them more stressed because they feel they are responsible for the patients' lives. These bags are to be used temporarily by trained professionals.
Experts suggest that 10-20 per cent beds in any hospital should be intensive care ones with ventilators. All 38 hospitals run by the Delhi government together have about 10,000 beds but are equipped with only 206 ventilators. This means only two per cent beds can provide intensive care. There were only 81 ventilators in these hospitals until 2016. Another 125 were added by December. Two years on, most ventilators have not been put to use because most hospitals have not gone for a proportionate increase in manpower.
"While we have been provided with a ventilator now, due to no proper care in the last eight days my son's condition has deteriorated. He has been shifted to Intensive Care Unit this morning and his condition is critical. We pressed the Ambu bag for seven days taking turns every half-an-hour," said Ashfak Ali, Farhan's father. Ambu bags are manual self-refilling bag-valve-mask which assist artificial respiration," said Ashfak Ali, Farhan's father.
At the 2,053-bedded Lok Nayak Hospital, there are only 102 ventilators, contrary to a 500-bedded private hospital close by that has 138 ventilators. The 2,000-bed hospital receives at least 1,000 patients in its casualty ward every day. Baba Saheb Ambedkar Hospital too has 23 ventilators, 18 of which were added in December 2016. Same is the case with the 100-bed Guru Gobind Singh Hospital in West Delhi's Raghubir Nagar. The hospital does not have any ventilator for outsiders.
"Out of the six ventilators we have, five are divided between HDU (High Dependency Unit) and Paediatrics Unit, while one is in the ambulance. We do not take outside patients for ventilators. They are mostly given Ambu bags and sent to Deen Dayal Upadhyay Hospital," said a senior doctor at the Guru Gobind Singh Hospital.
While Farhan fights for life, another two-month-old girl was brought to the Lok Nayak Hospital and was not given ventilator. The family was handed over an Ambu bag after the child was referred to the hospital from Harishchandra Hospital on January 28. She was admitted in the ICU two days later when her condition worsened and needed a ventilator. Soon after stabilising her on a ventilator, the family was again handed over the bag.
VOICES
It is disheartening to see that despite being the National Capital, the hospitals have such bad facility. This is in a way communicating to people that they are better off going to private hospitals.
— Sandeep Bali, Mehrauli
For a person with meagre means, there is no option left but to wait and wait at these hospitals. Private hospitals are beyond a common man's reach and government hospitals hardly care.
— Gaurav Batra, 34, Businessman
As soon as I read about Farhan, my heart almost skipped a beat. How could they do this that the family of a three-year-old was handed over an Ambu-bag, which they had to pump every 15 minutes taking turns. My heart goes out to the family.
— Dr Rajinder Kumar Singla, educationist.
I still remember Adya's case, when the family of the seven-year-old, suffering from Dengue was handed over a Rs 18 lakh bill and still the child did not survive. Here the family has been handed over an Ambu-bag. In short, you go to private hospital or public, there is no respite from the stress and anxiety.
— Amit Agarwal, Businessman
Despite several such instances, the Delhi government has taken no measure to provide enough facilities to the hospitals. Lok Nayak is a tertiary care hospital and if they cannot cater to critical patients, people should not even think about going to smaller facilities.
— Ayushmann Chawla, IT person
This is one of the reason why some of the big hospitals are super-crowded and the smaller ones or secondary care hospitals have become ghost hospitals. When the tertiary care do not have facilities, why will people turn to other care centres.
— Priti Grover, Housewife
EXPERT SPEAK
Some 4-500 beds private hospitals have over 120 ventilators, while this tertiary care hospital of the Delhi-government has 2053 beds and only 102 ventilators. We raised this point along with a request to raise address the problem of bad infrastructure at these hospitals. Principal Secretary was present today and he has asked the hospital to provide child's report as well as other details.
— Ashok Aggarwal, Delhi-based social activist and lawyer
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