Srinagar, June 7: The government’s failure to establish an Intensive Care Unit (ICU) with proper ventilator support in Valley’s only trauma hospital, Bone and Joint Barzulla, is putting the lives of critically wounded patients in danger.
“The hospital receives many trauma patients, particularly the victims of road accidents and other mishaps every day. However, the doctors working in the premier healthcare institute are forced to refer the critically wounded patients, who are in desperate need of mechanical ventilator support, to the Shri Maharaja Hari Singh (SMHS) Hospital and Sher-e-Kashmir Institute of Medical Sciences (SKIMS) as it lacks ICU with proper ventilators,” official sources in the hospital told Greater Kashmir.
They said that during the shifting of these grievously wounded patients, many of them succumbed for want of ventilator support. “The ambulances in the hospital are mere carriers and are unable to provide the mechanical ventilation, which is only available in the critical care ambulance,” sources said, adding that lives of many critical patients, who directly arrive in the B&J, could have been saved by the medicos if the government had setup an ICU with state of the art equipments, life saving support and other facilities inside the hospital. “The ventilator support is the lifeline of critically wounded patients.”
Sources said that besides receiving trauma cases, the doctors at the hospital also perform multiple surgeries in the operation theatres, which sometimes need ventilator backup. “Any surgery done under major and regional anesthesia always needs ventilator backup. The need of the ventilator becomes much more imperative if the patient develops complications under anesthesia during the procedure,” medicos in the hospital said.
“Every patient who is to be operated upon should be considered at risk, his health status notwithstanding. A patient receiving anesthesia might need post operative ventilator support. Intra-operative complications associated with various surgeries may need post-operative intensive care. Furthermore some surgeries like that of spine may need elective post operative mechanical ventilation till the patient is stabilized,” the medicos added.
Sources said that the senior faculty in the hospital raised the issue regarding the establishment of ICU in the hospital with the administration many a times. “However, their repeated plea has fell on deaf ears and nothing substantial has been done so far in this regard,” sources added.

Lastupdate on : Thu, 7 Jun 2012 21:30:00 Makkah time
Lastupdate on : Thu, 7 Jun 2012 18:30:00 GMT
Lastupdate on : Fri, 8 Jun 2012 00:00:00 IST