Altogether 12 ventilators are being stored in the godown in Bheri Hospital in Banke district for some time now in lack of maintenance.The life-support machines were provided by the government of Nepal and various donor agencies during COVID-19 pandemic.

Hospital’s physician Dr Paras Pandey admitted that the 12 ventilators were lying in the godown after those machines became dysfunctional. Pandey shared that of the 20 ventilators procured by the government, seven were also out of order.

The remaining ventilators also had battery issue, he said adding that frequent power outage had led to malfunction of the machines. “We need budget to repair these machines. We will repair the ventilators as soon as we have budget for it,” he pledged. Medical Superintendent Dr Badri Chapagain said that six ventilators were being used in the hospital at present.