December 14, 2020
District Hospital in J&K’s Poonch district has received 13 ventilators to treat Covid-19 patients but none of the life saving machines is in use. Reason for this is shortage of specialist staff and the lack of continuous oxygen supply. Hospital has just two anaesthetists, one of them who is under transfer has been temporarily retained to deal with the coronavirus patients. There is also no technician to operate the high-end ventilators.
“We have no oxygen generation plant. We only have oxygen cylinders but to fill them we have to send these to Jammu. That is a journey of 7-8 hours,” said Dr Shameema Bhatti, superintendent of the hospital. “And we are in dire need of the oxygen for Covid-19 patients”.