Home / Health / Ventilator Crisis Grips Islamabad Hospitals
Ventilator Crisis Grips Islamabad Hospitals
26 Jul
Summary
- Islamabad hospitals face severe ventilator shortages, impacting patient care.
- High daily costs and lack of trained staff exacerbate the crisis.
- Patient demand exceeds available life-support machines, leading to delays.
A critical shortage of ventilators is severely impacting patient care in Islamabad's federal capital, with hospitals like Pims and Polyclinic reporting near-complete occupation of their life-support machines.
Officials highlight that financial constraints and a lack of trained human resources are significant challenges. Each ventilator at Pims incurs substantial daily costs, around Rs200,000, yet treatment remains free for emergency and ICU patients. This financial burden, combined with extended patient stays on ventilators, strains hospital resources.
The demand for ventilators is amplified as patients are referred from across the country, and hospitals maintain a no-refusal policy. This influx means available machines are constantly occupied, leading to extended waiting lists. Even with efforts to increase capacity, such as a new block at Pims with 40 ventilators, the underlying issues of resource allocation and population growth remain.
Past initiatives to manufacture ventilators locally faced challenges, with former minister Fawad Chaudhry suggesting a need for foreign collaboration, like with Chinese companies. The scarcity of these high-end ICU devices has led to tragic outcomes, with reported deaths directly attributed to the unavailability of ventilators, underscoring the urgency of the situation.
