HSE bought 465 ventilators from China that were never used

The HSE was under considerable pressure to procure additional ventilator supplies for Ireland at the beginning of the pandemic, when expert predictions suggested the country’s existing supplies would be wildly insufficient for managing the disease.

The HSE brought 465 ventilators into Ireland from China at the beginning of the Covid-19 pandemic that were never used.

An email released to the Irish Examiner by the HSE under freedom of information shows the total manifest of such devices imported from China, as of December 14 of last year, was 465 machines at a cost of €9.4m, or €20,235 per unit.

The email, written by procurement officer with the HSE’s Health Business Services section (HBS) John Griffin, states that 1,026 ventilator units were purchased during 2020 at an overall cost of €30.6 million.

However, Mr Griffin stressed “the units from China are in quarantine due to quality-related issues”.

It is not revealed, however, where the machines have been kept in quarantine.

The remaining 561 units were procured from “traditional sources”, according to the mail, at a cost of €21,171,984, or €37,740 per machine.

Some 359 of the devices from such sources came from Cork supplier Healthcare 21, at a pre-tax cost of €24,500 per unit.

The HSE was under considerable pressure to procure additional ventilator supplies for Ireland at the beginning of the pandemic, when expert predictions suggested the country’s existing supplies would be wildly insufficient for managing the disease.

This newspaper has previously reported that the health service paid €14.1m to a media management company, Roqu Media International, for the delivery of 328 ventilators on March 23 last year.

However, just 72 units were delivered in the end, none of which were ever clinically deployed due to their failure to match minimum quality thresholds.

Detailed queries were put to the HSE requesting to know where the Chinese machines currently are, and what suppliers were used for their procurement, what make or brand the quarantined devices are, and whether or not the HSE is involved in discussions aimed at recouping its expenses for machines that were not usable.

A spokesperson replied: “The HSE is not in a position to provide any further comment at this stage.”

The HSE’s eventual outlay to Roqu was €10.3m, following a refund by the company of €3.8m, which it previously said had been actioned due to the HSE’s eventual need for ventilators being less than expected.

It is unclear, however, how the HSE’s total spend on 465 Chinese machines could be just €9.4m, given that its net spend on the Roqu devices alone was much greater than that figure.

In a briefing paper ahead of the Roqu transaction in March 2020, the HSE’s head of procurement Sean Bresnan outlined the “significant risk” involved in the deal, not least because there was no guarantee of ensuring the machines received would be of sufficient quality for deployment in Irish hospitals.

In order to mitigate that risk, Mr Bresnan suggested that the HSE must “simultaneously and aggressively” pursue other supply sources for ventilators at the same time as the Roqu transaction was being conducted.