Member of Legislative Assembly from Baramulla, Javid Hassan Baigh, on Thursday accused the administration of Government Medical College (GMC) Baramulla of hiding issues that required immediate attention, saying the details furnished by the authorities regarding defunct ventilators amounted to excuses for administrative failures.
Talking to Greater Kashmir regarding the calling attention notice on non-functional ventilators at GMC Baramulla, Baigh said the details provided by the GMC administration reflected an “absolute failure” and questioned why the authorities had waited for the equipment to become non-functional before taking corrective measures.
“The people in the administration at GMC put a veil over the things that need to be addressed,” Baigh said.
He stressed that authorities should have acted before the ventilators became unusable.
He said ventilators were critical life-support equipment and could not be treated like ordinary equipment that could simply be repaired after breaking down.
“As long as you fix the ventilator, the person who needs the ventilator will breathe and stay alive,” he said.
Baigh expressed regret that the district hospital authorities and GMC administration had not brought the matter to his notice immediately.
Baigh said he raised the issue before the Assembly as soon as it came to his knowledge and urged the government to ensure that such lapses were not repeated.
Baigh said the matter should not remain confined to GMC Baramulla and called for a system-wide approach to ensure availability of surplus ventilators and other critical equipment in government hospitals.
“If your capacity is 50, you should have 10-15 surplus, so that if there is a problem somewhere, you can replace it,” he said.
He said maintaining surplus equipment would ensure that patients continued to receive life-support facilities while faulty equipment was being repaired.
Baigh, however, said he did not believe the lapse was intentional, but an “unintentional lapse” and stressed that the authorities needed to be more cautious in the future.
“I can only advise because I am not in the government and my job is to raise the issue with honesty and sincerity,” he said.
He said the minister for health will decide what action should be taken against the officials concerned, saying the issue highlighted the possibility of other problems existing at the institution.
“This is just one issue for them. There are a lot of issues,” Baigh said.
