Ventilators and X-ray units among 91 critical medical equipment defunct, beyond repair at Cuttack SCB

A Right to Information (RTI) reply from the Odisha State Medical Corporation (OSMC) has revealed that 91 medical equipment at SCB Medical College and Hospital, Cuttack, are currently lying defunct, including ventilators, bone drill machines, digital radiography systems, X-ray units, and anaesthesia workstations.

According to RTI activist Pradip Pradhan, who sought the information, most of the equipment was declared defunct in September, while a few had stopped functioning earlier in August, as mentioned in a report by The Times of India.

Hospital Cites Ageing and Obsolescence

The TOI reports also cited SCB superintendent Dr Goutam Kumar Satpathy said that a large portion of the defunct equipment is beyond repair, having completed 20 to 25 years of service. He explained that spare parts, especially for ventilators procured from China during the COVID-19 pandemic, are no longer available in the market.

As per hospital protocol, heads of departments are required to mark old machines as ‘condemned’ after their usable life. However, some have reportedly not updated the status, causing delays in replacement and resulting in a backlog of defunct machines in hospital records.

Satpathy stated that several new machines have already been procured through the OSMC, while the remaining replacements are expected soon.

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Cardiac Department Under Pressure

The latest RTI disclosure adds to a series of challenges facing SCB Medical College, which has been struggling with infrastructure and manpower constraints in recent months.

Recently, the Odisha government informed the Orissa High Court that plans to establish a second cardiac surgery team at SCB have been deferred due to a shortage of qualified cardiothoracic and vascular surgeons.

The Health and Family Welfare Department said that until at least three additional specialists are recruited, the expansion of open-heart surgery operations is not feasible.