'Defective ventilators serious matter': Bombay HC seeks Centre's reply

Mumbai: The Bombay High Court on Tuesday said that more than a hundred ventilators provided to hospitals in the Marathwada region of Maharashtra through the PM CARES Fund turning out to be `defective' was a serious matter, and sought to know what action the Union government proposed to take.

Justices R V Ghuge and B U Debadwar of the Aurangabad bench, hearing petitions pertaining to the COVID-19 pandemic, also said that deans of hospitals are competent to decide whether a ventilator is defective or not, and their opinion must be accepted.

Chief Public Prosecutor D R Kale informed the division bench that the dean of the Government Medical College at Aurangabad received 150 ventilators through the PM CARES Fund. The hospital used 17 units, 41 were given to five private hospitals in Aurangabad and 55 were distributed to other districts. The remaining 37 were lying unboxed, he said.

As per a note submitted by Kale, all 113 ventilators which were put to use were found to be defective, and in every case, it affected the treatment of COVID-19 patients.

There were serious problems of "low inlet O2 pressure display" and the patients in some cases became "hypoxic" (a condition caused by low oxygen levels in blood) even when put on the ventilator, it said.

"We find the situation regarding dysfunctional ventilators, supplied through the PM CARES Fund, to be quite serious," the judges said, and directed the Union government to submit a reply on what action and remedial measures it proposed to take.

"Let the Government realise they had supplied inferior quality ventilators, let them go back and replace them with certain good quality ventilators. If the PM cares fund is to be used for providing ventilators, it should be ventilators worthy of medical use, and if they are not worthy of medical use, it's just a box," the court said

The Union government must state what action it planned to take against the company, it added.

"The company should not get away with this. It is the public exchequer's money, the high court said, adjourning the hearing to May 28.