The intricacies of safely transporting critically ill patients from one place to another were discussed at a workshop organised at the Institute of Medical Sciences and SUM Hospital here on Wednesday with experts emphasizing the need for taking recourse to the latest available technology.

Doctors explained how to transport ventilators were being used by the hospital while underscoring the need for training of the medical staff working in ICUs and others to make them familiar with the use of technology for wide application, superior patient monitoring, and enhanced safety.

The Continuing Medical Education (CME) program on Non-Invasive Ventilation (NIV) and Transport Ventilation was organised by the Bio-medical Engineering Department of the hospital in association with Resmed India.

Addressing the program, Prof. Pusparaj Samantasinhar, Medical Superintendent of the hospital, expressed concern over the rise in air pollution in major cities– with Delhi mulling a lockdown – which had led to serious health issues. “Amazon forests, considered the lungs of the world, were getting depleted due to forest fires,” he said adding new forests had to be created to battle this problem and bring down a load of illnesses.

Dr. Iswar Chandra Behera, in charge of Neuro Critical Care, said transporting a critically ill patient was a vital part of treatment and such workshops were the need of the hour. He urged the nursing staff to sharpen their expertise through such hands-on training.

Three other critical care experts in the hospital, Dr. Shaktibedanta Mishra, Dr. Santosh Singh, and Dr. Sagarika Panda also spoke underlining the need for enhanced safety for patients for intra-hospital and inter-hospital transport. Dr. Mishra emphasized the need for lessening the complication rate.

The other participants in the workshop included Dr. Aurolipy, Head of Quality department, Ms. Manorama Parida, Biomedical Engineer, Dr. Pulkit Swarup from ResMed India, Mr. Prahalad Mohanty, Officer-on-Special Duty, Ms. Minati Mishra, Nursing Superintendent, and Mr. Akhyay Kumar Swain, DGM, Biomedical Engineering at SUM Ultimate Medicare.