Delhi
Newsline: New Delhi: Monday, October 22, 2012.
Nine of the
25 ventilators in Kalawati Saran Children Hospital are not working, the
hospital said in an RTI reply.
These include
six of the 10 ventilators in the paediatric ICU of the hospital. The hospital
is one of the two specialised paediatric care centres run by the government.
According to
the RTI reply dated August 22, of the six non-functional ventilators one is
“non-repairable” while five are under repairs. The Paediatric Surgery
department, in a reply dated September 5, said: “At present, there are six
ventilators for use in the pediatric surgery ward (three ResMed transport
ventilators, two Beer cub ventilators and one advent ventilator). Of these, two
ResMed Transport ventilators are working while the remaining ventilators are
out of order.”
Responding to
a question on the status of ventilators in the past three years, the hospital
authorities said, “There is no ready data available regarding non-functional
status of ventilators during the past three years. However, whenever any
complaint is received, prompt action is taken to inform the firm concerned and
repair the ventilator.”
Stating that
there was no evidence to co-relate that the condition of ventilators could “be
directly attributed” to the mortality in the hospital, the reply said over
10,000 children died in the hospital in the past five years.
RTI applicant
Rajhans Bansal said he had filed a complaint with the National Human Rights
Commission (NHRC). “It is a specialised children’s hospital and if so many
children are dying every year, it is shocking. I have filed a complaint with
NHRC to take necessary action.”
Medical
superintendent of the hospital Dr Anita Kulshrestha said the figures could be
misleading. “The mortality rate needs to be examined in accordance with the
admission rates. We are a tertiary care, referral centre so we get a lot of
children often in serious condition. I have not been approached by NHRC yet on
the issue.”
Dr
Kulshrestha said since the time of filing the reply repair work on many of the
ventilators had been completed. “As far as I know, in the ICU, only two
ventilators are not working. I will have to check on the rest of the hospital’s
ventilators,” she said.
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