JOIN USIt is shocking that the National Institute for Mental Health and Neuro Sciences (Nimhans), the country’s pre-eminent centre in the domain, had to recently turn away a critical road accident victim after a five-hour wait due to the lack of a ventilator-equipped bed. The patient’s relatives claimed that nobody in the hospital attended to the patient even as he waited in the ambulance; the Resident Medical Officer has stated that the trauma team immediately evaluated the patient and advised his kin to shift him to another hospital as Nimhans did not have even a single ventilator bed available at the time. Irrespective of which version is true, it is a fact that Nimhans does indeed suffer from an acute shortage of ventilator beds. The most common cause of head trauma is accidents, and statistically, it is said that on average, some 13% of these patients require intensive care. Timely medical intervention can prevent secondary damage to the brain. However, very few government hospitals in Karnataka have the infrastructure or the trained staff to handle such cases. Thus, it is common for accident victims not just from Bengaluru but from across South India to rush to Nimhans, particularly when an accident results in serious head injury.
Several such cases of delay or denial of admission in critical cases due to the shortage of ventilator beds have been reported in the past. Last year, the issue came up in the state Assembly when a few MLAs complained that a gram panchayat member who had suffered brain haemorrhage after a fall was kept waiting for several hours. In October last, Chief Minister Basavaraj Bommai had given an assurance that the state government would provide 100 ventilators to the institute within six months, but that promise does not appear to have been fulfilled. The proposed Bengaluru (North) campus of Nimhans, which was expected to ease the pressure on the main institute, has also been hanging fire for over a decade now.
Some serious questions arise when an institute that is claimed to be a “world-renowned centre” is ill-equipped to cater to serious casualties and is forced to turn them away. This calls for augmenting both infrastructure and manpower at Nimhans without further delay. Bommai has promised to support any move by Nimhans to expand its footprint across the state on the lines of Kidwai and Jayadeva Hospitals and to allot the funds required in the coming budget. This should hopefully bring mental health and trauma care within easy reach of the common man. Hopefully, the government will not renege on its promise.