Can’t permit repaired ventilators for treating patients, HC tells Centre

The Aurangabad bench of the Bombay high court (HC) has said that it will not permit experimentation of the ventilators which have undergone major repairs, in treating the patients and asked the Centre to get the faulty ventilators replaced by the manufacturer company

The Aurangabad bench of the Bombay high court (HC) has said that it will not permit experimentation of the ventilators which have undergone major repairs, in treating the patients and asked the Centre to get the faulty ventilators replaced by the manufacturer company. The bench also asked the Centre to hold the company liable after it was informed that a team of doctors would be visiting Aurangabad Government Medical College and Hospital (GMCH) to assess the ventilators on Thursday.

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The division bench of justice Ravindra Ghuge and justice Balchandra Debadwar was hearing the suo motu criminal public interest litigation (PIL) initiated by it after news reports highlighted the issue of shortage of oxygen and Remdesivir, mismanagement at Covid facilities, profiteering and black marketing in the procurement of Covid drugs, high cost of treating black fungus infection, faulty ventilators being supplied by the centre to Marathwada, among others.

In the previous hearing on May 28, the bench had taken strong objection to the fact that the Centre rather than condemning the company for supplying defective ventilators was trying to defend it by saying that the doctors and technicians in Aurangabad and other districts where 113 of 150 ventilators had been unboxed were not having proper knowledge on using ventilators. The Centre had also informed that the ventilators were from the Ministry of health and family welfare and not through the PM Cares Fund.

The court had taken note of the report submitted by a team of eight doctors who worked in ICU’s and were adept at using ventilators that were supplied by other companies and directed the Centre to inform it of the action it proposed to take against the company which supplied the ventilators.

On Wednesday, chief public prosecutor DR Kale informed the bench that a special meeting for conducting analysis of installation, commissioning and operation of ventilators provided to the states by the central government for Covid 19 management was held at GMCH on May 29. He also submitted that inspection of the DHAMAN-III model ventilator manufactured and supplied by Jyoti CNC from Rajkot by a staff well-versed with the operation of ventilators revealed that the ventilators had suffered a continuous breakdown. The report added that even after repairs and desaturation, water drain failure, non-proper User Interface (UI) and some other defects were detected.

Additional solicitor general Anil Singh for the Union of India informed the bench that two senior doctors from Delhi would be visiting GMCH on Thursday and would conduct an extensive inspection of ventilators and if the same were found to be dysfunctional even after inspection or repairs, the manufacturer would be held liable. He added that the manufacturer would be asked to replace the ventilators as they were in the one year warranty period.

When Kale pointed out that the doctors at GMCH and other hospitals were apprehensive about using defective ventilators and did not want to be blamed for a casualty that may occur due to the use of such ventilators, Singh said that there would be no casualty as the manufacturer would have to ensure that the ventilators were up to desired operational levels.

After hearing submissions, the bench noted, “We expect the Centre to be firm with the manufacturer in the event of defective ventilators and if we find it necessary, we would be directing the returning of defective ventilators. In such a situation it would be the responsibility of the Union Government that defective ventilators be replaced with functional new ventilators…”

The court further observed, “In short, we would not permit experimentation of ventilators who have undergone major repairs, in treating patients since this would be causing risk/health hazard to the patients. If unfortunately, the use of such ventilators may cause loss of life, which should be averted.” Thus saying the bench sought the report of the team visiting on Thursday and posted a hearing of the issue on June 7.