Bhubaneswar: Lack of infrastructure and manpower shortage are responsible for costly equipment and medical devices like ventilators and oxygen concentrators to lie idle or non-functional in several hospitals across the state, the CAG has observed.
According to the report tabled in the assembly, Odisha State Medical Corporation Limited (OSMCL) had supplied 402 ICU ventilators, worth around Rs 11.77 crore, to 13 private hospitals for treatment of Covid patients. After the pandemic, these ventilators were to be returned to the government.
“It was, however, noticed that these ventilators were not returned by the private hospitals. During inspection of 10 such hospitals, these ventilators were found to be lying in the stores of these private hospitals,” the CAG report stated.
It also said that OSMCL had supplied 817 Multipara monitors, costing nearly Rs 10.95 crore, to 12 private hospitals which were lying with them. The CAG found that 57 kinds of equipment received from OSMCL, National Health Mission (NHM) and PM Cares, were lying in the sub-stores of three district headquarters hospitals (DHH)s — Bhadrak, Dhenkanal and Sundargarh — without having been installed.
One laparoscopic unit, costing Rs 20.89 lakh, was lying idle at DHH, Puri, since March 2006 due to lack of trained technical staff. Similarly, one Remidio digital Fundus camera (Rs 4.97 lakh), that DHH, Nabarangpur had got in Nov 2021, was not put to use in the absence of an ophthalmologist and an ophthalmic assistant.
“Scrutiny of records and joint physical inspection of clinical and non-clinical departments of two surveyed medical colleges and hospitals (MCH) revealed that 553 items of equipment, costing Rs 17.76 crore, remained idle or defunct,” the report stated, without naming the healthcare institutions.
