MYSURU: KR Hospital in Mysuru recently received 20 ventilators from PM CARES Fund, but the hospital may not be able to use all of them as it does not have enough beds with piped oxygen supply to install them.
The ventilators are part of the district’s share of entry-level ventilators that are being provided under the PM CARES to address the requirement of life support systems among critical Covid-19 patients. They are in addition to the 15 advanced ventilators provided by the state medical education department as a part of Covid measures which also have met the same fate.
According to officials, the issue has cropped up as KR Hospital has only 100 beds with oxygen support which need to be plugged into the ventilator. And out of these, over 90 are already occupied by critical patients, and removing them from oxygen support would be life-threatening. In addition, it is learnt that Mysuru’s Covid hospital, which got 32 ventilators from PM CARES, is slated to send them to KR Hospital as they have 18 ventilators and cannot install more.
Despite the urgency of increasing the number of beds with oxygen support in the hospital, a proposal to install more oxygen lines with the construction of one more liquid oxygen plant has been pending for long. Dr C P Nanjaraj, Dean and Director, Mysore Medical College and Research Institute, said that out of the new ventilators, five have been installed.
Since they are facing a lack of beds with oxygen support, they are planning to install the rest at the under-construction trauma centre. He said the proposal to add more oxygen beds at KR Hospital is pending due to delay at the state level in sourcing jumbo oxygen tanks and manifolds which are in short supply worldwide.