Chandigarh, May 4 (UNI) The Shiromani Akali Dal (SAD) on Tuesday asked Chief Minister Capt Amarinder Singh to recruit medical specialists needed to operate the new ventilators that are lying unused in the State.
The SAD said that this step should be taken immediately to ensure availability of this life saving facility for Covid patients.
In a statement here on Tuesday, former minister Sikander Singh Maluka said it was heart wrenching that even though three hundred new ventilators had been received by the State months ago, they were not being used for the want of qualified staff who could operate these.
“In some cases they have not even been installed” Maluka lamented.
Asking the State government to get its act together, he stressed that the executive should act decisively when required.
“This is an extraordinary situation. Normal procedures should be set aside to recruit the needed staff and make all the ventilators functional as soon as possible”.
He said while earlier there were reports of nearly 200 new ventilators not being put to use in Amritsar, a recent report had highlighted that eleven ventilators despatched to Muktsar were lying idle for want of staff. “New ventilators despatched to several government hospitals are also lying unused”, he added.
Stating that the fight against Covid was at a crucial stage, the SAD leader said any laxity now would prove very costly for the State. “We must ensure efficient running of all ventilators at our disposal as well as availability of medical oxygen and life saving drugs needed to combat Covid. Besides this more dedicated Covid beds need to be created even if by arrangement with private hospitals.
“The chief minister should not shirk from allocating resources for this. This is the only way to reduce the fatality rate in the State which is double the national average and among the highest in the country”.
Mr Maluka also advised the Chief Minister to "leave aside all politics for the moment."
He said “This is not the time for politics or settling internal feuds in the Congress party. The SAD is ready to cooperate with the government as it has done earlier to save lives. Let us fight this scourge unitedly”, he added.
UNI JS RKM 1913