Breathing help: BBH gets 18 new ventilators

RAWALPINDI: The casualty ward at one of Rawalpindi’s major public hospital was likely to get additional ventilators, officials at the hospital said on Monday.

Currently, there are only 16 ventilators at the intensive Care Unit (ICU), Coronary Care Unit (CCU), and the pediatrics wards at the Benazir Bhutto Hospital (BBH).

The public sector health facility, however, has now acquired 18 new ventilators, doubling the of these machines at BBH.

“The new ventilators will become operational over the next three weeks,” said BBH Medical Superintendent Dr Arshad Ali Sabir while talking to Daily Express.

The hospital will have 34 functional ventilators when these new machines are installed and start working, he added.

The BBH did have 18 ventilators installed, but two had broken down.

According to Dr Sabir, of the 16 ventilators, nine were installed in the ICU, two in the CCU, one in the dengue ward and four in the pediatric ward. Once the new ventilators are working, Dr Sabir said that some would be moved to serve as backups.

Published in The Express Tribune, January 10^th, 2017.