Over 100 ventilators supplied to Jammu and Kashmir under PM-CARES fund were found defective and "unfit for critical care" on trial runs.
According to a report by NDTV, the ventilators sent to the Government Medical College in Srinagar could not be used for critical care because they had serious technical flaws.
The hospital's Department of Anaesthesiology and Critical Care Medicine, in an RTI reply, said that the 37 Bharat ventilators received had "compressor/heat up problems" which resulted in sudden shutdowns. The machines were returned, it said.
The report added that the ventilators were manufactured by three different companies. Doctors told the publication that tests are conducted on a few machines to check the quality and not on every machine. The government said an inquiry will be ordered to fix the responsibility, they said.
Slamming the PM-CARES fund as a "sophisticated way of corruption", PDP president Mehbooba Mufti on Monday alleged that the ventilators provided under the PM-CARES fund were found to be defective not only in Kashmir but also in Gujarat. "The biggest swindle is in the PM-CARES fund," she said.
Earlier, in May, the Aurangabad bench of the Bombay High Court had also slammed the Centre for its "insensitive" approach over the issue of supply of more than 100 dysfunctional ventilators to hospitals in the Marathwada region of Maharashtra.
Meanwhile in Karnataka, as many as 176 ventilators supplied under the PM-CARES Fund have not been installed. Of the 2,913 ventilators received by the state so far, 2,737 have been installed.
Though the health department maintains that the installation is need-based, medical colleges and hospitals using the ventilators that have already been supplied complained of technical defects and frequent breakdowns.
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(With PTI inputs)