JAMMU: An RTI has revealed that all 165 ventilators supplied to SMHS Hospital Srinagar under ‘PM CARES’ were found defective. Informing this to media persons, here, RTI activist Balvinder Singh appealed Chief Justice of J&K High Court to take cognizance of the issue and get functioning of all the ventilators installed in various health institutions of JK UT, supplied under PM CARES examined.
“Though officials of the H&ME Department in Jammu division also admit that the ventilators supplied to them are not of good quality and not functioning properly, they didn’t give exact detail in response to my RTI query for the reasons best known to them,” he said. Balvinder Singh was all praise for GMC Srinagar and especially HoD Anesthesiology & Critical Care Medicines, GMC Srinagar, who gave clear information with regard to the defective ventilators of three different Make/Brand, supplied to them under “PM CARE” for the better patient care management. HoD Anesthesiology states in the RTI reply that the departments received Bharat Ventilators from Medical Superintendent SMHS Hospital and were put in trial run.
However, all these ventilators were returned to SMHS Hospital due to compressor/heat up problems, which resulted in sudden shut down of these ventilators. Three Agva Ventilators too are non-functional due to certain problems like display not working properly and problem in generating tidal volume. So far as the 125 ventilators of DHAMAN-III are concerned, after a trial run, it was observed that these are not feasible to be put in use for patient care. “Installation of these defective ventilators in health institutions of Jammu division could be one of the major reason responsible for highest COVID-19 Mortality rate in Jammu division as compared to Kashmir,” said Balvinder Singh and appealed Chief Justice of J&K High Court to take serious cognizance of the issue.
He urged the CJI to give directions to the Chief Secretary J&K to constitute committee of experts to examine the functioning of all the ventilators installed in various health institutions of JK UT, supplied under PM CARES, and take stringent action against the suppliers and also initiate disciplinary action against officers of H&ME Department for dereliction of duty as how they have approved the installation of defective ventilators, without putting them on trial by the experts thus putting the lives of the patients at high risk.
