State splurges on ventilators

Invests in imported ones that cost Rs 14 lakh while DRDO's version, the brainchild of Abdul Kalam, costs only Rs 5 lakh

State splurges on ventilators

Invests in imported ones that cost Rs 14 lakh while DRDO's version, the brainchild of Abdul Kalam, costs only Rs 5 lakh

The state government plans to buy imported ventilators over indigenous ones developed with former president A P J Abdul Kalam's blessings and at nearly one-third the cost.

At a discussion organised by the directorate of Ayush last Wednesday, principal health secretary I R Perumal said 26 ventilators, costing Rs 14 lakh each, would be provided to city and district hospitals in the wake of the swine flu scare.

The "adult paediatric ventilator" called Inventa was the result of a joint project between DRDO, PSG College of Technology, Coimbatore, and Pricol Medical System Limited (PMSL), the company which is marketing it.

The project, funded by the Society for Bio-Medical Technology (SBMT), was the brainchild of Kalam whose mission was to take technology to the common man at affordable costs.

Well-suited

"The machine has built-in features for Indian conditions," said the marketing manager of PMSL, who requested not to be named. "We used the imported ones as a benchmark for our product, studied their features and inculcated the best in ours."

The cost of imported machines is high because they have "more features than ours which are not necessary for 85 to 90 per cent of cases". For H1N1 cases, the indigenous ventilator will "more than suffice," he said.

The ventilators are already being supplied to private and government hospitals in many parts of the country, he added.

Nimhans approved

Sources said the indigenous ventilator was in use at Nimhans for a year and has been validated by them for production. They say the machine is as good as imported ventilators.

When Dr Shashidar Buggi, director of RGICD, was contacted regarding the new ventilators, he said, "The government must have taken some decision to strengthen the numbers. I am a medical officer and I don't have information about the types."

Similarly, when MiD DAY contacted P N Srinivasachari, commissioner, health and family welfare services, he said, "We are still assessing the requirements and costs."u00a0

Perumal was not available for comment.

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