AHMEDABAD, MAY 27
Acting on the directive of the Gujarat High Court, the Gujarat government on Wednesday formed a committee of four private doctors to look into the difficulties faced by the medical staff of Ahmedabad Civil Hospital.
In its order on Tuesday, the Gujarat High Court directed the state government to form a committee of independent members to look into issues raised by a resident doctor of the hospital in an anonymous letter sent to it.
The state government said it has formed an independent committee of four private doctors to resolve problems faced by resident doctors and other staff of Ahmedabad Civil Hospital.
The division bench of Justice J B Pardiwala and Justice I J Vora had said the committee report may inspire confidence among them.
“We direct the state government to undertake this exercise of looking into the problems faced by resident doctors and other staff. Whatever may be the problem, big or small, the state government must intervene and resolve the same,” the court said.
If the doctors and nurses were unhappy with their working conditions, it will take a heavy toll on their performance and consequently, on COVID19 patients, the court observed.
The court was hearing a suo motu PIL on measures taken by the government to deal with the coronavirus pandemic and lockdown.
In an anonymous letter, a resident doctor had said “mismanagement” and “irregularities” at Ahmedabad Civil Hospital, where he worked in a non-COVID-19 ward, could turn doctors like him into “super-spreaders” of the infection.
Hospital upgrades 75 ‘Dhaman-1’ ventilators
The Ahmedabad Civil Hospital on Wednesday said it has upgraded 75 ”Dhaman-1” ventilators – which have been at the centre of a row – it had received from the Gujarat government and put 15 of them to use for the treatment of coronavirus patients.
The announcement came amid a raging controversy surrounding these ventilators after opposition Congress had questioned the ability of these machines, claimed to be donated to the government by a Rajkot-based firm, in saving lives of COVID-19 patients.
Out of around 100 such ventilators received by the Civil Hospital here, 75 have been already upgraded by installing new instruments and systems, said hospital superintendent and OSD Dr M M Prabhakar.
“Out of 100 Dhaman-1 ventilators we have, 75 were recently upgraded. Fifteen such upgraded machines were already put to use in the COVID-19 ward.
“New equipment added in the existing ventilators included a mixture, humidifier, and compressor,” said Prabhakar.
He added that the Civil Hospital has deployed around 180 standard ventilators along with the newly acquired Dhaman-1 devices for coronavirus patients.
Notably, this government-run medical facility, having 1,200 beds exclusively for coronavirus patients, is considered the largest civil hospital in Asia.
At present, around 800 COVID-19 patients are being treated here.
A massive controversy erupted last week when the hospital administration, in a letter to the government, sought more advanced ventilators claiming Dhaman-1 devices were not up to the mark.
The BJP government had defended its decision of procuring Dhaman-1, claiming these devices were as good as other such life-saving machines and certified by a centrally accredited laboratory.
The government had said Rajkot-based firm Jyoti CNC has developed Dhaman-1 brand of ventilators and donated 866 of the medical equipment to the state for free in April at a time when there was an acute shortage of these machines following the coronavirus outbreak.
However, the Gujarat Congress had alleged that the owner of Jyoti CNC, Parakramsinh Jadeja, is Chief Minister Vijay Rupani’s friend and “sub-standard” ventilators were being promoted by his government at the cost of human lives.
The ruling BJP had called the allegations levelled by the Congress as baseless and said the opposition party was maligning the image of a local manufacturer.
