Both ventilators in the hospital’s Intensive Care Unit (ICU) are not functioning. Instead of repairing the two ventilators, the hospital management simply shut the ICU down and redirected ICU staff to other departments.

Similarly, the Acid Base Gas Analysis machine and the electrolyte machine have also been defunct for months. What is worse is that the hospital management has not floated a single tender for repair, maintenance or repurchase of these machines.

“They just refer critical patients to other hospitals and take in patients with only minor illnesses. This hospital is working like a dispensary,” a nurse working in the hospital said.

The 100-bedded hospital has a staff sanction of nearly 100 doctors, junior and senior resident doctors included. The hospital has an annual budget of Rs 22 crore but it has not spent a penny on the repair of the essential machines like ventilators.

When asked how doctors can do their jobs when most machines are not working, the Medical Superintendent said, “Our doctors are mainly catering to out patients and persons with simple illnesses,” Dr H C Das, medical superintendent of the hospital, said.

The Medical Superintendent had instructed doctors in writing not to take critical patients as the ventilator was not functioning.

“How does anyone explain why it has taken three years for the hospital management to get machines repaired? It also speaks volumes about the State Health Department, as the hospital authorities have not been pulled up yet,” a resident doctor in the hospital said.

State Health Secretary Rakesh Bihari was not available for comment.