In order to augment the existing hospital infrastructure, the Centre has been centrally procuring and providing States/UTs/Central Hospitals/ Institutes with essential medical devices including ventilators since the beginning of the pandemic.
It was earlier reported by media organisations that ventilators in the Aurangabad district of Maharashtra were not functioning optimally. It was reported that the ventilators were procured under the PM Cares Fund. However, Centre rubbished the reports and said, “These reports are baseless and incorrect, not supported by full information on the matter.”
It added that the ventilators were sponsored by the Make in India project.
“Ventilators were available in very limited numbers in Government Hospitals across the country at the beginning of the pandemic last year. Moreover, very limited manufacturing of ventilators was taking place in the country and most of the suppliers abroad were not in a position to make supplies of ventilators in large quantities to India. That is when the local manufacturers were encouraged to produce “Make in India” Ventilators to address the huge projected demand of the country and orders placed on them. Many of them were first time manufacturers of the ventilators. The ventilator models went through rigorous screening, technical demonstration and clinical validation process in the very limited time available for the same, through domain knowledge experts, and after their approval, these were put into supplies,” it said.
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