Give 150 ventilators to Delhi's Sardar Patel Covid centre: Prime Minister's Office

NEW DELHI: The Prime Minister's Office (PMO) on Saturday asked the health ministry to allocate 150 ventilators to the ITBP-managed Sardar Patel Covid Care Centre (SPCCC) at Chhatarpur here, for upgrading capacity of the facility to handle critical patients.
In a letter sent to the ministry of health and family welfare, adviser to the Prime Minister Bhaskar Kulbe referred to the request of ITBP DG S S Deswal seeking allocation of the ventilators for the centre, and said that 150 ventilators provided under PM CARES Trust Fund and embedded with GPS-enabled devices, “may be provided from the available stock on loan basis for a period of six months now, which if necessary, may be extended further on review”.
“I also request you to organise immediate installation of these ventilators by the selected vendor(s). Simultaneously, please advise the SPCCC for the site preparation. Necessary training for use of these ventilators may also be organised by the selected vendor(s),” Khulbe said while asking MoHFW secretary Rajesh Bhushan to be informed of the decision. tnn
There are around 500 oxygen beds at the Covid care facility, which is sought to be increased to 1,000 beds in the coming days. Around 600 admissions have been taken in at the facility since it started operations a few days back, though as of now around 325 beds are occupied with some patients either having been discharged or moving to other facilities. "Once the ventilators arrive, we will be able to address critical needs of the patients here itsef," ITBP spokesperson Vivek Pandey told TOI.
Though there were some issues earlier regarding availability of oxygen at the facility, an officer said these have been resolved with around 600 oxygen cylinders and oxygen concentrators having been arranged.