Summary There are only 45 ventilators available in Lahore's govt hospitals for 11,000 patients
LAHORE: (Dunya News) –With just 45 ventilators available in the government hospitals for 11,000 patients, the health facilities in the provincial capital are extremely poor by any standards. The international standard is that there should be 30 ventilators for every 100 patients while currently we have less than one for every 250 patients, reported Dunya News.
According to a report published in Daily Dunya, Lahore has a total of six major government hospitals. Since it is the capital of Punjab, the influx of patients from the smaller cities is huge. But for 11,000 patients coming to these hospitals for emergency treatments, there are just 45 ventilators. Jinnah Hospital has 2 ventilators, Services has 10, General Hospital has 17 while Mayo Hospital has 16.
Sir Ganga Ram Hospital’s emergency receives 1350 patients on an average daily but unfortunately it has no ventilators at all. The patients are thus shifted to indoor ICU if ventilator is compulsory. Similarly, 350 patients also come to Sheikh Zayed Hospital emergency ward but no ventilators are there for them either.
The influx of patients in the emergency section of Asia’s largest Mayo Hospital is 4000 a day. It has only 16 ventilators, out of which 2 are allotted to the Burn unit, 8 in surgical ICU and 6 in neuro-surgery ward.
About 10% of the patients are kept on Ambu bags instead of ventilators.
Looking at the facilities in Lahore’s hospitals and comparing them with the international standards, the picture seems really gruesome.
