Donnelly defends HSE over ventilator procurement after only 465 of 2200 pre-paid machines delivered

Minister for Health Stephen Donnelly has defended the Health Service Executive after internal auditors found only 465 of 2,200 pre-paid ventilators were delivered.

The health service pre-paid €81 million to 10 suppliers previously unknown to the HSE for nearly 2,200 ventilators at the start of the Covid-19 pandemic.

Only 465 of these were delivered and none were put into clinical use, health service internal auditors have found.

A HSE internal audit report, released on Tuesday, said more than €35 million in refunds was still outstanding and legal action against four suppliers was ongoing.

Mr Donnelly said he welcomed the audit, but he told RTÉ radio that it was important to remember the context in which the deal was done, at the start of the Covid pandemic.

“We have to remember the context, they were being screamed at by the Opposition, by the Government, by the media, by everyone in the country to get these ventilators in at all costs.”

He added: “The reality is that the HSE had to procure ventilators from all over the world in a war like situation with countries scrambling to get these ventilators and what we couldn’t have that happen and what was a very real concern was that we would run out of ventilators and that we would have patients with Covid in ICU in the most horrific of situations who couldn’t be ventilated and we were seeing this happen in other countries.

“Should due process have been followed? Of course it should, but I think we have to look at what happened in those times and remember that we were all demanding that at any cost we get those ventilators in to protect people in the country.”

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