Chaotic situation amid shortage of ventilators in Punjab.

FAISALABAD -- The state-run hospitals of Faisalabad are facing an acute shortage of ventilators so much so that a lady doctor and her colleagues had recently failed to arrange a ventilator for her uncle.

The district government officials claim that ample ventilators are available but doctors allege that the officials are portraying a false picture.

Sources told Dawn that an uncle of a lady doctor had been brought to the Allied Hospital with symptoms of coronavirus. His condition deteriorated and the doctors recommended a ventilator for him, however, no ventilator was available at the health facility. The doctor requested her colleagues to arrange a ventilator for her uncle and they all tried their level best but could not get it as the officials said not a single ventilator was free at the hospital. They eventually managed a ventilator at the DHQ hospital but it was too late as the patient passed away while being shifted from Allied to the DHQ hospital.

Doctors said Faisalabad hospitals lacked ventilators as the number of patients was on the rise. They said that during Eid days they had received dozens of patients with symptoms of coronavirus.

Lady doctor fails to arrange ventilator for her uncle

They said even the General Hospital Ghulam Muhammad Abad which had been dedicated for the treatment of the coronavirus patients lacked the ventilators.

Young Doctors Association Faisalabad chapter secretary Dr Adnan Shakir told Dawn that the local hospitals had been facing an acute shortage of ventilators. He said not a single ventilator had been given to the state-run hospitals during the pandemic. He said the uncle of the lady doctor recently passed away as all ventilators were occupied in the DHQ, Allied and the General Hospital Ghulam Muhammad Abad.

Currently, he said, sixteen ventilators...

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