In the month of March, when the COVID-19 pandemic was pounding Italy, the shortage of ventilators was a major concern. There were reports of doctors being forced to make dreadful decisions on who gets to live and who gets to die. India was watching this with horror and just days after imposing a nation-wide lockdown, the central government placed an order for 40,000 ventilators putting smaller manufacturers in the spotlight.
A consortium of Bharat Electronics and Mysuru-based Skanray bagged the order to manufacture 30,000 ventilators. The second-order went to Maruti Suzuki and Noida-based AgVa Healthcare. That consortium bagged the order to manufacture 10,000 ventilators.
Two months later on June 21, Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) President JP Nadda claimed that 60,000 ventilators will be available through the PM-CARES Fund by the end of June. That has not happened.
From production, procurement, price, and performance, these ventilators ordered by the government have been facing one controversy after another. A report by the Huffington Post over the weekend claimed that AgVa Healthcare fudged software to hide poor performance and cited two former AgVa employees.
AgVa Healthcare has strongly refuted those claims. Two hospitals in Mumbai – Saint George and JJ returned 81 ventilators manufactured by AgVa that were donated to them by private foundations.
In a letter written on June 19, doctors claimed that the level of oxygen desired could not be provided. Delhi’s Lok Nayak Hospital also raised concerns over ventilators provided by the government of India saying they lacked 2 key modes that are necessary for functioning.
RC Bhargava, chairman of Maruti Suzuki who has collaborated with AgVa Healthcare to manufacture ventilators, Diwakar Vaish, co-founder of AgVa Healthcare, Vishwaprasad Alwa, founder and managing director at Skanray Technologies and Doctor Rahul Pandit, the director of the intensive care unit (ICU) at Fortis Hospital in Mumbai’s Mulund discussed the controversy threadbare.
