HYDERABAD: This is the season when respiratory problems are on the rise and, shockingly, the largest government hospital in the state, the Government General and Chest Hospital at Erragadda in Hyderabad, where patients suffering from intense respiratory problems are admitted, do not have even a single mechanical ventilator to treat respiratory failure.
According to pulmonologists, asthma and chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD) worsen during monsoons and winters as inflammation of the lung increases and causes breathing problem. Sources in the hospital predict that a large number of critically-ill patients will get admitted to the chest hospital in the coming weeks when the dire need for ventilators will be felt again.
The number of out-patients has risen from an average of 250 in summer to 400 in the monsoon. On Monday, 500 patients visited the OP unit. Senior pulmonologists said that 10 to 20 per cent of flu patients develop respiratory failure.
While a Respiratory Intensive Care Unit (RICU) was set up around four months ago, ventilators were not provided. The new unit has not been inaugurated till now. In case they develop respiratory failure, the hospital does not have the resource required to save them.
IRONY: Ironically, instead of patients being referred from other government hospitals to the chest hospital which specialises in pulmonology, patients are referred from the chest hospital to Osmania General Hospital or Gandhi Hospital to provide them ventilator support. In a week, at least four patients are referred to these two hospitals. The chest hospital has 305 beds and 81 per cent of the beds were occupied on Tuesday.
“We constructed the RICU using the hospital’s funds. In December-2017, I wrote to director of medical education Dr K Ramesh Reddy requesting for mechanical ventilators, special beds for patients and monitors, and it was approved. It is the Telangana State Medical Services and Infrastructure Development Corporation (TSMIDC) which has to supply the resources,” said Dr Mahaboob Khan, superintendent of the chest hospital.
According to him, the hospital’s immediate requirement is ventilators as it receives large number of patients suffering from COPD, asthma and other issues related to breathing. Dr Ramesh Reddy said that they were following up with TSMIDC officials who have assured to provide the ventilators to the chest hospitals.