Excelsior Correspondent
JAMMU, May 10: Former minister Mula Ram and and DCC Jammu-Rural president Hari Singh Chib while expressing concern on the shortage of BIPAP machines and ventilators in the health facilities across the Union Territory of J&K , have urged the Government to procure the same on priority to efficiently tackle the surge in COVID cases.
In a joint statement issued here today, the Congress leaders said that reports pouring in are sounding alarm bells that the edifice in COVID-19 dedicated hospitals across the UT is facing acute shortage of necessary BIPAP machines and ventilators which are considered as the life saving equipment especially for the COVID patients having Chronic Obstructive Pulmonary Disease (COPD).
They said, “It is a matter of grave concern that those Corona patients who are in urgent need of BIPAP machines are being shifted to level- 2 of the Covid care health facilities as the number of aforesaid equipment in level 1 hospitals is inadequate. In the absence of BIPAP machines, the ailing are being forced to ‘suffocate’ and suffer”.
Mula Ram and Chib urged the J&K Administration to take emergent steps by placing orders for procuring these life saving equipments directly to the manufacturers after exempting the necessary procedures which can cause inadvertent delays. They said that the need of the time is to provide consistent support to those who have been affected by the most dreadful disease of the present times and any delay in getting such vital equipment can prove life consuming and should be avoided by all means.
The Congress leaders said that the Government should take steps keeping in mind the probable third wave of the virus, which has been predicted by many experts in the field. “It will be advisable to place orders of life saving drugs and equipment by taking into account the upward graph of the COVID-19 because the new variants of the disease are supposed to be more dangerous and call for adequate equipment and resourceful healthcare manpower”, they added.
Follow our WhatsApp channel