Veer Surendra Sai Medical College and Hospital in Burla

Sambalpur, Oct. 25: Patients at Veer Surendra Sai Medical College and Hospital in Burla are suffering as the central intensive care unit (ICU) of the facility has two ventilators operational instead of four.

Sources said: “Initially, four ventilators had been installed at the ICU. But, two of them went defunct a few moths ago. To manage the situation, the authority had brought two ventilators from the swine flu ward and installed here. But after some days, all the four ventilators went defunct again. The authority repaired only two.”

A doctor said: “Ventilator is crucial for those, who are unable to breathe or breathing insufficiently.”

“People from western Odisha and the neighbour state depend on this hospital. But, the ICU remains paralysed owing to lack of adequate number of ventilators. On many occasions, the patients are facing problems because of lack of the life-saving machine,” said Gopal Lal, convenor of the Veer Surendra Sai Medical College and Hospital Vikash Parishad.

“The authority is yet to take any initiative to restore normal service at the central ICU. Two months ago, the advocate forum of Burla had brought the matter to their notice,” said Lal.

“As the ICU is running with two ventilators, many critical patients have to be shifted to private hospitals. The rich can afford it, but what about the poor? The authority should take immediate measures to replace the defunct machines,” said Chetan Goyal, a local resident of Burla.

Hospital superintendent L.K. Das admitted that the central ICU was being managed with two ventilators. He said: “We have sent proposal to the government for new ventilators for the central ICU.”