Kin slug it out for ventilators at PGI

While the tussle for getting the life-support system at the premier hospital continues to be an uphill task,authorities blame it on the yawning gap between the demand and supply.

“We cannot ask a person to vacate ventilator for the other. Since in most of the cases,serious patients come to the hospital,ventilators are never vacant. It depends on the burden of cases on a given day,” said an officer.

Same are the views of the paediatric wing of the hospital,which has 9 ICU beds and three are in the ward and six in the emergency wings. “The more is less at the PGI,” said a senior doctor,who said that tussle between the hospital staff and the patients’ attendants is rampant when it comes to providing ventilators.

“Since the demand is always more than the supply,we sometimes have to explain it to the attendants that even if they insist on keeping their patient on ventilator,its of no use if the chances of revival are minimal. The support system has a role only when the patient’s chances of recovery are alive,” said another doctor.