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Centre slams claim of not distributing ventilators during peak second Covid wave
The Centre said a large number of the ventilators sent to the states have remained uninstalled and unused in their warehouses.
The Central government on Thursday dismissed a media report claiming it had kept 13,000 unused ventilators and did not deliver the same to states during the second wave of the coronavirus (Covid-19) disease. The Centre said a large number of the ventilators sent to the states have remained uninstalled and unused in their warehouses.
The Centre's rebuttal was based on a report published in The Quint that said close to 13,000 (12,973) ventilators procured by the Centre were not distributed to the states. The article claimed to have accessed an RTI response received on July 8 from the Ministry of Health and Family Welfare.
In a statement, the government said no ventilators have been kept in the inventory and not given to states that needed them. Every lot of ventilators which are ready for dispatch is being sent to states and Union territories promptly, it said.
The statement said the Ministry of Health and Family Welfare had placed an order for procurement of 58,850 ventilators at the beginning of the pandemic -- between March 27, 2020 and April 17. All these equipment were made in India, considering the fact that there was very little possibility of import due to a rise in global demand and restriction on export in manufacturing countries. The government said local manufacturers, who had limited capacity, were encouraged to ramp up production and it was done by sourcing technology and tying up with companies who could assist them in the matter.
Based on the recommendations of the Empowered Group-III meant for ensuring adequate supply of essential medical devices, these procurement orders were placed by the Union government.
“After the ventilator models were technically examined and validated by the Committee of Experts under the Director General of Health Services, these were recommended for supplies to the states/UTs. The supplies were made as per the demand received from States/ UTs. The demand from the states for ventilators received till September 2020 was addressed through supplies. Thereafter, negligible additional requirements were projected by the states. Till November, 2020, almost entire quantity of ventilators demanded by the states had been delivered i.e., 35,398 ventilators,” it said.
“After November, till March 2021, additional supply of ventilators was only 996 since the additional demand for ventilators was only this much.” However, of this, a large number of ventilators remained un-installed in the states, it said. Considering the fact that states did not allocate them to the hospitals in view of no demand, the Union health secretary on April 4 wrote to a few states urging them expedite the installation of ventilators, and for projecting additional requirements of the same if any in view of the recent surge in cases. The Union Health Ministry then wrote multiple reminder mails to the states and UTs.
"Since there was no demand from the states, no supply schedule was given to the manufacturers. The manufacturers are required to assemble the ventilators based on the demand projected to them within the quantity of overall orders given to them. Every unit of ventilators are required to be assembled, calibrated, tested and quality checked and pre-dispatched inspected before the ventilator is actually supplied to states," the government further said.
