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From Hindustan Times:
'In an apparent sign of the sad state of affairs in hospitals run by the Armed Forces Medical Services (AFMS), the Comptroller and Auditor General (CAG) has come down heavily on the huge shortage of critical medical equipment. “As of December 2010, there was deficiency of at least 22,108 equipment in different hospitals, with reference to the authorised scales, for which no procurement was made to make up for the projected deficiencies,” the CAG said it its latest report.

The deficient items included ECG machines, cardiac medical instruments, DC defibrillator, nebulisers, ultrasound units, etc. Hinting at large scale ‘anomalies’ the CAG pointed out at the “huge price variations in local procurements of drugs across various hospitals ranging upto even 100 times.” The implication is that either locally procured drugs were being supplied at exorbitant prices or drugs were being supplied at freakishly low prices, calling into question their quality.

The report also highlighted that there was an overall shortage of 12% medical officers in the hospitals besides a shortage of 298 specialist doctors against the authorised strength of 2217 such doctors."