BHUBANESWAR: AIIMS-Bhubaneswar will soon have an extracorporeal membrane oxygenation (ECMO) facility. Planned for a two-machine unit, the premier healthcare institute is expected to get at least one machine by the end of this month.
AIIMS Director Dr Gitanjali Batmanabane said a purchase order has already been placed and the Indian agency of a foreign company has assured to deliver the machine within three to four weeks.
“We have specialists in Cardiothoracic and Vascular Surgery and perfusionists to run a single machine. Once the machine is installed, we can immediately start the unit. The second machine is expected in the next three months and by then we are planning to recruit more manpower,” she told TNIE.
Sources said AIIMS had planned to make the ECMO unit functional last year itself following the outbreak of Covid-19.
Though the institute had floated an e-tender in November, it did not receive a response from any vendor. The machine does not have any domestic manufacturer.
The State government has also initiated a tender process for procurement of six machines to start an ECMO unit at SCB Medical College and Hospital at Cuttack.
With a number of Covid-19 patients in the State requiring ECMO to survive, the government is attempting to source at least one machine to tide over the crisis.
“An industrial house has agreed to the proposal to arrange the machine from abroad from its CSR fund. If it arrives on time, it will be installed in SCB MCH, which has a trained workforce to operate,” said an official.
Director of Medical Education and Training (DMET) Dr CBK Mohanty said the procurement of ECMO machines is difficult as those are in limited numbers.
“Even if we get some machines, trained manpower is also a constraint to operate. But the SCB MCH has agreed to run at least one unit,” he added.