7,000 units delivered: Has the ventilator drive run out of air?
When the pandemic hit South Africa, the country had 3,300 ventilators, with two-thirds of them being in private hospitals.
Nurses set up new ventilators at Charlotte Maxeke Hospital in Johannesburg. Picture: Neil McCartney
The department of trade and industry (DTI) has defended delays in the R250 million National Ventilator Project, which to date has yet to reach 50% of its initial target.
The project was funded by the Solidarity Fund and run by the DTI. In July, the Solidarity Fund approved the additional funding of R405 million for the purchase of critical healthcare equipment for public hospitals in Gauteng, Western Cape and Eastern Cape.
But even though infection and death numbers have remained relatively low in Africa, a shortage of ventilators could pose the biggest risk of healthcare systems.
When the pandemic hit South Africa, the country had 3,300 ventilators, with two-thirds of them being in private hospitals.
Read more: Is National Ventilator Project a ‘slightly delayed’ success, or massive failure?
As the disease’s deadliest symptom is respiratory failure, government made it clear that the National Ventilator Project would be made a priority.
However, by 24 August the project only announced the delivery of 35 out of nearly 1,000 ventilators, which was scheduled to arrive at the Charlotte Maxeke Johannesburg Academic Hospital.
According to DTI spokesperson Sidwell Medupi, the project was far from a failure and has only been delayed by budget issues.
“As we speak, we now have over 7,000 units and those have been delivered to public hospitals around the country,” said Medupi.
“The two provinces which received the bulk of these are Gauteng [2,417] and KwaZulu-Natal [2,051].”
The initial target set by Trade and Industry Minister Ebrahim Patel was 20,000 non-invasive C-PAP ventilators. These targets were changed several times, according to the Democratic Alliance shadow Trade Minister Dean McPherson.
The World Health Organisation had estimated around 14% of Covid-19 patients would require hospitalisation and oxygen support, and about 5% would need a ventilator – generally found in an intensive care unit.
Gauteng health department spokesperson Kwara Kekana said she was only aware of 36 ventilators sent to Charlotte Maxeke.
Kekana added that Gauteng was not initially earmarked to receive as many as 1 000 ventilators.
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