HYDERABAD: The Gandhi Hospital, which is also the state's exclusive and biggest Covid treatment facility, has run out of ventilator beds.
This was admitted by none other than Health Minister Eatala Rajender at a press conference on Thursday.
When asked why there was a shortage of beds, he noted that while oxygen beds were available, there was a shortage of ventilators as several private hospitals were sending extremely ill patients beyond scope of revival to Gandhi Hospital. There are a total of 619 ventilators in Gandhi hospital.
"There is no shortage of oxygen. We have learnt about black marketing and delay in supply from some distributors. However, an expert team of 10 IAS officers under the Chief Secretary and Minister KT Ramarao and I are continuously monitoring the oxygen supply to ensure our stocks do not run out," said Rajender.
He further said that district hospitals, which have been sending critical patients to Gandhi Hospital, will be discouraged as cases will be treated locally.
While illustrating efforts of the administration, the minister urged the Centre to increase the production of vaccines and send Telangana required number of those. "Vaccines are produced in Telangana. We could also say that since it is made here, we will restrict the supply and direct it to ourselves. However, we are keeping the nation's preferences first. Similarly, the Centre must supply more vaccines to Telangana," he added.
Bed availability in Gandhi Hospital at 7 pm (Thursday)