PIMS has only 100 ventilators, lacks trained doctors
April 4, 2020 05:56 PM
The Pakistan Institute of Medical Sciences (PIMS) is facing a severe shortage of ventilators and trained doctors to operate these, 24NewsHD TV channel revealed in an exclusive report.
And one can easily ascertain the state of affairs in other parts of the country if Islamabad’s main hospital is experiencing this situation.
There are 100 ventilators in the hospital but it is feared that these won’t be enough in case of increase in the number of coronavirus patients.
Sources at PIMS say that the hospital even doesn’t have sockets to ensure operation of ventilators.
The report says senior doctors are ready for demo but the Ministry of National Health Services, Regulation and Coordination is silent on the issue.
The PIMS had inducted 100 junior doctors in the past but did not arrange any training for them to operate the ventilators despite the passage of several years.
A 16-member team headed by Prof Dr Rana Imran is currently on duty at the Critical Care Department.
Ventilators are now considered most important machine in the fight against coronavirus. The high death toll in countries like France, Italy and the UK is being attributed to low availability of ventilators.
But Germany, on the other, is witnessing less deaths when compared with the total number of coronavirus cases reported in the country.
According to available data, Germany has around 28,000 ICU beds [ventilator is an essential part of an ICU bed] and is planning to increase the numbers to 50,000 in the coming weeks.
Furthermore, it has 29.2 such beds for every 100,000 citizens – the highest in Europe. But there is a strong contrast between Germany and other European nations, as the corresponding number for Portugal is 4.2, the lowest in Europe. Even Sweden, which is known for its welfare system around the globe, has just over six beds.
When it comes to Italy, it is ranked as 10th with 12.5 beds followed France 12th (11.6), Spain 16th (9.7), the UK 24th (6.6 beds) and the Netherlands 27th (around 6.3).