Maharashtra: Nearly 300 ventilators lying unused in PCMC-run hospital

PUNE:Around 295 new ventilators bought during the first and second Covid-19 waves are now gathering dust in a locked room at Masulkar Eye Hospital, one of the civic hospitals in the Pimpri Chinchwad Municipal Corporation (PCMC) limits.
Civic officials have blamed the lack of trained manpower and non-availability of space in the existing municipal-run hospitals for the ventilators lying unused.
The ventilators in Pune and Pimpri Chinchwad were used at the jumbo makeshift facilities set up at the College of Engineering Pune (CoEP) ground and Annasaheb Magar stadium in Pimpri to treat Covid patients in 2020. After treating more than 15,000 Covid patients in over 15 months, the makeshift hospitals in Pune and Pimpri Chinchwad were dismantled in March this year due to a drastic drop in caseload.
PCMC municipal commissioner Shekhar Singh told TOI: “We will shift the unused ventilators to the civic hospitals when the necessary expansion, which has been planned, take place. But since there is a space crunch now, we need to work out a solution. We are also working on the annual maintenance of these machines to ensure their hassle-free deployment in time of need.”On the other hand, Pune Municipal Corporation (PMC) officials said they have already issued a work order for the maintenance of 200 unused ventilators.
An official from the Pimpri Chinchwad-based New Thergaon Hospital, one of the civic hospitals of the PCMC, said they have 11 ICU beds and around five beds with ventilator support.
“We have heard about the expansion plans. If these are executed, more ventilators and beds can be added here,” the official said. The official said the ventilators would require proper maintenance and trained staffers.
PMC officials had earlier said the medical equipment from the dismantled jumbo units, including beds, dialysis units and ventilators, would be transferred to the civic medical facilities as needed, while the Pimpri Chinchwad civic body officials had said the newly constructed civic hospitals would get a better share of the medical equipment from the makeshift unit.