All 80 ventilators at Lok Nayak Hospital are functional and 18 ventilators have been kept in reserve for emergency use, Delhi Health Minister Pankaj Singh said on Friday. He made the remarks as he assessed medical facilities at the hospital.
The Indian Express had reported in August that only one out of 15 ventilators was functional in the neurosurgery department at the 2,153-bed hospital, the largest such facility in the Capital. Days after the report was published, the hospital’s neurosurgery department installed five portable ventilators at its ICU unit and secured three ventilator beds of ICU units of other departments for its patients.
Following the review on Friday, the Delhi Health Minister said that it is impossible for a hospital of Lok Nayak’s stature to have a significant number of ventilators out of order. He cited official reports from the past months to corroborate the operational status of the equipment.
“The information being circulated about non-functional ventilators is misleading and factually incorrect. Creating unnecessary panic among citizens is not justified,” he said.
The procurement process for MRI machines, the Health Minister said, has been under progress, and all Delhi government hospitals will be equipped with MRI and CT scan facilities by next January.
Singh, meanwhile, underlined that these steps are part of the government’s broader vision to make Delhi’s public healthcare system the best in the country.
