All 165 ventilators supplied to SMHS Srinagar under “PM CARES” found defective: RTI reply

Balvinder urges Chief Justice JK High Court to take cognizance of issue 

Jammu: While addressing the Press Conference renowned RTI Activist S Balvinder Singh  stated that one of his RTI, filled in Health & Medical Education Department of J&K, made very shocking revelations with regard to the functioning of Ventilators of different Make/Brand  supplies to JK UT under “PM CARES”.

Singh Said that though Officials of the health department  & from H&ME department from Jammu division admits that the ventilators supplied to them are not of good quality and are not functioning  properly but they didn’t give exact  detail in response to my RTI query, for the reasons best known to them. GMC Jammu Have shown that only 13 ventilators out of 179 are  defective and are not working.

Balvinder said he had all praise for GMC Srinagar and Especially HOD Anesthesiology & Critical care Medicines GMC Srinagar who didn’t care for any pressure or his/her compulsions and gave  clear information with regard to the defective Ventilators of three different Make/Brand, supplied to them under “PM CARE” for the better Patient care Management.

 HOD Department of Anesthesiology stated in his/her Reply that the departments received Bharat Ventilators from Medical Suprintendent SMHS Hospital and were put in trial run. However, all these ventilators returned to Medical Sup SMHS Hospital due to compressor/heat up problems, which resulted in sudden shut down of these ventilators. Thus, these ventilators do not support patient care management.

HOD further states that 3 Nos Agva Ventilators installed in SMHS Hospital, however these ventilators are non-functional due to certain problems like display not hgtgfworking properly, problem in generating tidal volume.So far as the Ventilators of DHAMAN-III is concerned HOD stated in the reply that 125 Nos of  ventilators of this Make are stationed at DRDO Hospital Khonmoh Srinagar, out of 125 ventilators, 2 are in SMHS Hospital for trial run in order to ascertain whether these ventilators generate required tidal volume and after a trial rum, it was observed that : (i) Tidal Volume had not generated. (ii) The required Fi02 could not be delivered to the patients, thus is not feasible to be put in use for patient care. (iii) Ventilators stops automatically, hence, put patients at risk. HOD also submits that beside these 22 more Agva Ventilators are stationed at DRDO under trial.

Balvinder Singh along with other civil society member Sh Mohinder Sharma, Sh Anil Nargotra & Sh Harish Soi said they  believe that the  installation of defective ventilators in health institutions of Jammu division Jammu   could be  one of the major reason/factor responsible  for highest Covid-198 Mortality rate  in Jammu Division  as compared to Kashmir.

     Keeping in view the seriousness of the issue and  to save the  precious lives of the inhabitants of the UT, as there is every apprehension of the arrival of 3rd  Covid-19 wave,   we make humble submission before the Chief Justice of J&K High Court to take serious Cognizance  of the issue and give directions  to the Chief Secretary     JK UT to constitute  committee of experts  to examine the  functioning of the all the ventilators  installed in various health institutions of JK UT, supplied under PM Cares,  and take stringent action against the suppliers  of such defective Ventilators and  also initiate disciplinary action against officers of Health & Medical Education department for  dereliction of duty as  how they have approved the  installation  of defective ventilators , without putting them on trial by the experts, in various health institutions of the JK UT  and putting the lives of the patients at high risk. So that faith of general public be restored on the Health system of the JK UT.