Centre, Punjab spar over ‘faulty’ ventilators

Vishav Bharti & Balwant Garg

Tribune News Service

Chandigarh, May 13

A blame game has erupted between the Centre and state government over supply of ‘faulty’ ventilators to Punjab under the PM Cares Fund.

The state had claimed that around 90 per cent ventilators sent by the Centre were faulty and non-functional. Countering the charge, the Union Government said the state’s infrastructure to run the equipment was faulty, not the ventilators.

In a statement, the Union Health Ministry said among ventilators installed at Guru Gobind Singh Medical College and Hospital (GGSMCH), Faridkot, 88 ventilators were supplied by Bharat Electronics Limited and five by AgVa Healthcare.

States failed to install equipment: Centre

The Centre said a few more states, which were supplied ventilators, failed to install the machines in hospitals. The Union Health Secretary wrote to seven such states on April 11 to get the installation expedited. However, authorities in Punjab said as soon the necessity arose, the ventilators were put into service and most performed poorly.

“There are issues/problems with the infrastructure, including non-availability of required pressure in the central oxygen gas pipelines. Further, the consumables like flow sensors, bacteria filters and HME filters are not being changed by the hospital authorities as per the prescribed norms, or ventilators are being used without these.” BEL engineers visited the GGSMCH again today and made five ventilators functional by replacing only a few consumables and demonstrated their optimum performance to the GGSMCH authorities, it said.

Reiterating the state’s claim, Minister for Medical Education and Research Om Parkash Soni said, “The ventilators were faulty that is why the Government of India sent its engineers for repairs.”

Dr Raj Bahadur, Vice-Chancellor of Baba Farid University of Health Sciences, Faridkot, said they had been regularly informing the state government regarding the malfunctioning ventilators.

He said senior functionaries in the Health Department had clearly informed the Centre too, he said.

“The Centre should have provided a long-term annual maintenance contract with the machines,” said the Vice-Chancellor, adding that only one engineer of a company reached the Faridkot medical college to rectify the problem.