Rise in number of patients on ventilator support in Ludhiana dist

Manav Mander

Tribune News Service

Ludhiana, April 12

The second wave of Covid is both infectious and fatal. The number of people infected and on ventilator support has increased considerably.

On Sunday, 25 persons were on the ventilator support, out of which 11 were from Ludhiana district and 14 from other districts. On Saturday, 22 patients were on ventilator support.

In Ludhiana there are a total of 147 ventilators in private hospitals, out of which four government ventilators are installed at Christian Medical College and Hospital. At Civil Hospital, there are 18 ventilators. Earlier, when the cases were subsiding the ventilators at Civil Hospital were non-operational due to shortage of staff but now with surge in cases staff has been deputed and ventilators have been made operational.

“Ventilators have been made operational again as the cases are rising. We have assigned duties to staff nurses for the same. Presently there are three patients admitted to the level-III facility but none is on the ventilator,” said Senior Medical Officer Dr Amarjit Kaur. Civil Hospital is the only government facility in the district where ventilators are available.

In March last year an Covid-positive Amarpura woman died a few hours after reaching Rajindra Hospital after she was referred to Patiala as she was in need of ventilator and Civil Hospital, Ludhiana, did not have the same at that time.

After this incident demand was raised to for the installation of ventilators at Civil Hospital but since there war shortage of trained staff, so four government ventilators were installed at Christian Medical College and Hospital and patients in need of ventilator support were referred to the CMCH. In October 2020, Civil Hospital got equipped with the level-III facility with 18 ventilators.

The DMCH has the highest number of 25 ventilators and 90 ICU beds reserved for Covid patients, followed by CMCH with 31 ICU beds with same number of ventilators. A total of 203 beds are available in the level-III facility in the district, out of which 18 are at Civil Hospital.

A senior doctor from a private hospital said since the second wave of Covid was going strong many patients were being admitted to ICUs and some have to be put on ventilators as well. The new variant was affecting the lungs directly and presence of fibrosis was also being seen in some.