Poor infrastructure of Punjab hospital responsible: Centre on reports of faulty ventilators

In a statement, the Centre stated that the lack of infrastructure at Guru Gobind Singh Medical College (GGSMC) and Hospital has caused the critical devices to remain unused.

"There have been some media reports suggesting that government of India supplied ventilators (supported by PM- CARES) to GGS Medical College and Hospital, Faridkot, Punjab are lying unused as a result of technical glitches which have not been resolved due to poor after-sales support by the manufacturers," the ministry said in the statement.

"These reports seem to be unfounded, not having the full information on the matter," it said.

With reference to the recent media report regarding 71 of 80 AGVA make Ventilators being non-functional or faulty at the GGS Medical College and Hospital, Faridkot, Punjab it is clarified that 88 Ventilators have been supplied by Bharat Electronics Limited (BEL) and five by AGVA.

After successful installation and commissioning, these ventilators were provided with a final acceptance certificate by the hospital authorities, the statement said.

BEL has said that most of the ventilators are working fine unlike what is being reported in a section of the media while its engineers have visited the medical college and hospital on several occasions to conduct minor repairs that were immediately required based on the complaints received, the statement said.

They have even conducted repeated demonstrations of the functioning of the ventilators to the staff over there, the statement added.

It was observed that there are issues / problems with the infrastructure in GGSMCH including non availability of required pressure in the central oxygen gas pipelines.

Further, the consumables like flow sensors, bacteria filters and HME filters are not being changed by the hospital authorities as per the prescribed norms, or the ventilators are being used without these important consumable items, the statement pointed out.

Maintenance of correct gas pressures (difference between air pressure and oxygen pressure cannot be more than 10 PSI) and use of proper consumables are essential requirements, without which performance of CV200 ventilators is not guaranteed, it further added.

BEL engineers visited GGSMCH again today (12th May, 2021) and made five ventilators functional only by replacing a few consumables and demonstrated their optimum performance to the GGSMCH authorities, thereby, further making it evident that when operated properly, the ventilators will provide reliable performance, the statement said.

In addition to the instructions given in the user manual, detailed instructions and guidelines have also been issued to all the ventilator users regarding infrastructure requirements, proper usage and maintenance of the CV200 ventilators.

However, these are not being followed by many hospitals / medical colleges in Punjab. They have been, instead, raising the issue of ventilators being non functional without any basis.

"It is clarified that BEL will continue to provide all the technical support required by the state in meeting the ventilator requirement during this pandemic situation,"the statement read.