Question : Faulty Ventilators and Medical Equipments

Will the Minister of HEALTH AND FAMILY WELFARE be pleased to state:
(a) the number of ventilators and medical equipments provided under the funds allocated to his Ministry and the number of ventilators out of them that remain unutilized, State/UT-wise;
(b) whether complaints have been received from States/UTs regarding the bad quality ventilators/defective medical equipment purchased through the funds allocated to his Ministry, if so, the details of the complaints received for faulty ventilators and medical equipments, State/UT-wise;
(c) whether replacements of the defective/nonfunctional ventilators has been done by his Ministry, if so, the details thereof along with the action taken against the companies who have supplied the faulty ventilators and medical equipments;
(d) the details of the firm/companies from which his Ministry has procured ventilators and medical equipments along with the pricing for such ventilators and medical equipments thereof; and
(e) whether his Ministry is aware that the firms had not received a recommendation from the technical committee set up by Directorate General of Health Services until July 2020, if so, the details thereof and the reasons therefor?

ANSWER
THE MINISTER OF STATE IN THE MINISTRY OF HEALTH AND
FAMILY WELFARE
(DR. BHARATI PRAVIN PAWAR)
(a): Ministry has provided 48,446 ventilators to State/ UTs and Central Institutions. The details of Medical equipments provided to States/ UTs and Central Institutions as on 20.07.2021 at Annexure I.

(b): The ventilator manufacturing companies have a system for feedback/ complaint management which includes toll free helpline numbers/ whatsapp group and dedicated email IDs to capture complaints / any issues regarding ventilators supplied and installed by them.

The manufacturers received a number of requests from the hospitals/ States for redressal of their queries/ issues with regard to ventilators installation.
The same are expeditously attended to by the teams of technicians/ engineers of the ventilator manufacturing company deployed for this purpose.

(c): Ventilators have been supplied with minimum 1 year warranty. Toll free number has been given to user institutions to register complaints with manufacturers. The technicians/ engineers deployed for this purpose by the manufacturing companies attend to such requests expeditiously to ensure uninterrupted functionality of hospital facilities. Manufacturers undertake training of medical / para medical personnel operating the ventilators, carry out repair, replacement of components/ ventilators wherever required to ensure that these are functional and operational.

(d): Details provided in Annexure II.

(e): Technical evaluation and clinical validation of “Make in India” ventilators was undertaken by technical and domain knowledge experts under DGHS. The team of experts undertook extensive demonstration and validation exercise over extended period of time to satisfy themselves that the ventilators meet the prescribed specifications before recommending their supplies.