Ahmedabad: State government, which has so far been installed around 8,200 ventilators in government hospitals, plans to add more than 4,500 more for the possibility of the third wave of Covid-19.
Gujarat Medical Service Corporation Ltd (GMSCL) which is the authority of the central purchase for the procurement of medical devices for government hospitals in Gujarat recently floated tenders for 500 ventilators.
“There were around 8,170 ventilators installed by the state government after the Covid-19 pandemic impose a national kuncian in March last year.
The government has so far cleared plans to get 4,500 additional ventilators and these numbers are expected to increase in the coming days,” said a senior state government official in knowing the problem.
Companies such as Bel-Skanray, Max Ventilators and Schiller Healthcare India Pvt Ltd are expected to participate in offers floating by GMSCL for ventilators, source words.
The addition of 55% in the installed capacity that is expected to be seen in the next few months does not include the ventilator to be purchased at the tariff contract, he added.
Rates are basically related to fixed pace.
In the contract currency period, the manufacturer must supply material at a fixed level, regardless of quantity.
The new state government has recently held a pre-supply meeting with a ventilator manufacturer for the third wave.
“Ventilator demand almost doubled in the second wave compared to peak requests in the first wave.
The country faces a shortage of around 50,000-60,000 ventilators that represent around 50% of the total needs of the state in May when the country reported the highest daily case – People infected with Covid-19, “said an industrial expert.
The third wave is expected to regard to September and October according to some researchers and health experts.
Some experts claim that the third wave is likely to affect children more.
Although there have been several studies recently to show that this might not be the case, the Gujarat government did not want to leave something by coincidence, it seems.
GMSCL recently ordered 39 pediatric ventilators from the Indian Schiller Healthcare Pvt Ltd and planned to get more further.
“Many ventilator makers have default facilities in their ventilators so that it can be used both for adults and children,” said government sources.
During the first wave, 18,000 ventilators were installed in the ICU in hospitals throughout the country.
About 90% of them are imported.
In the middle of the Covid-19 pandemic, many Indian companies began producing ventilators and they added around 40,000 ventilators in the first few months, according to industry sources.
The reason behind changes in the scenario of inventory requests between November and may be that the strain of the virus in the second wave has a greater percentage of patients who need ICU maintenance, the source said.