Patna: As India grappled with the global pandemic Covid-19, the medical system of the country has sounded an alarm. While the healthcare system in the country is running at full capacity with fewer staff members and less medical equipment, hospitals of Bihar are facing a different kind of problem.
Here several government hospitals, designated for Covid-19 treatment, are having ventilators but none of them is operational.
Last year, various government hospitals received a consignment of as many as 207 brand new ventilators under the PM CARES fund. Meanwhile, it came to notice that those consignments of ventilators yet to be unpacked due to the lack of operational workers.
As Bihar battles, a deadly surge of Covid-19, with daily caseload this week increasing to more than three times the peak seen last year, the lack of trained technicians to man life-saving devices questions the government's perspective towards public welfare.
The districts that are facing a lack of ventilator include Buxar, the parliamentary constituency of Union Minister of State for Health Ashwani Choubey, Nalanda, the home district of Chief Minister Nitish Kumar, West Champaran, the home district of Deputy Chief Minister Renu Devi and Katihar, the home district of Tarkishore Prasad.
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Apart from this, Bihar's Health Minister Mangal Pandey's home district Siwan also facing the same kind of problem. Siwan hospital has a ventilator but it is not available to patients due to the lack of technicians.
Speaking to ETV Bharat in this regard, Medical expert Dr Diwakar Tejaswi said, "The condition of state health service is so bad that despite having ventilators, the people of Bihar are dying due to lack of technicians. Every day around 15,000 new patients are being tested positive for Covid-19. Of these, 2 to 3% of people require intensive treatment, for which the ventilator is an important device."
"In such a difficult time, it is necessary that a sufficient number of ventilators should be available in every district headquarters and there should also be technicians to operate it so that the patient can be saved in time," Dr Tejaswi said.
"In Bihar, ventilators have been lying abandoned in hospitals due to shortage of technicians and doctors. The government should take adequate action to provide the adequate number of technicians and doctors to save the lives of the people so that ventilators are used and patients can be saved," he added.
"The death of Covid-19 patients in Bihar is not due to lack of ventilators or oxygen, but due to failure of the government system. Ventilators, even if lying unused, need regular servicing and government has to work on it. Hospitals need the trained manpower but the government is not taking action on the recruitment process," said Vikas Chandra, a Social worker.
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According to reports, 6 ventilators at each hospital are lying unused in 31 districts including Patna, Gaya, Muzaffarpur Bhagalpur, Siwan, Nalanda, Katihar and Bhojpur. Apart from these, two in Arwal, two in Shivhar, three in Sheikhpura, Purnia and 7 ventilators in Rohtas hospitals are lying abandoned due to lack of technicians.
Scarcity of health workers is a chronic problem in Bihar and now, such in a gloomy situation, the non-functionality of the ventilators making the situation particularly egregious.
