LUCKNOW, April 25 -- A significant number of life-saving ventilators in major government hospitals in the state capital remain underutilised due to a persistent shortage of trained doctors and technical staff, forcing many critically ill patients to be referred to higher centres. The issue has drawn the attention of the Lucknow bench of the Allahabad high court, which recently questioned whether the availability of ventilators on paper translates into adequate care for patients on the ground. At Lucknow's Balrampur Hospital, director Dr Kavita Arya said 63 ventilators are available. While a 28-bed ICU is fully functional with trained staff and equipment, the remaining 35 machines, some located near operating theatres, are being managed by the same ICU team, according to the director. At the Dr Shyama Prasad Mukherjee Civil Hospital Lucknow, 16 ventilators are installed - eight in the cardiology department and eight in the paediatric ICU. "We do not have fully trained staff, but services are being managed with available trained manpower," said chief medical superintendent Dr Devesh Pandey. The hospital caters to around 300 patients at a time. At Lok Bandhu Raj Narain Hospital Lucknow, 30 ventilators are available, but only 15 are currently in use. Ten are operational in the ICU, while five are deployed across emergency, orthopaedic and post-operative wards. The remaining 15 are yet to be made functional, pending repairs to the second floor damaged in an April 2025 fire, said Dr Rajeev Dixit, officiating director of the hospital. Hospital data shows that 116 patients received ventilator support at LBRN Hospital over the past year. To bridge the skill gap, select staff-including nursing and technical personnel-have undergone training and are now mentoring others, with another batch scheduled for training, said Dr Dixit. Despite these stop-gap measures, doctors across facilities acknowledge that the shortage of specialised manpower continues to hamper critical care delivery....