At least 7,000 ventilators breathe new life into public hospitals
The National Ventilator Project has distributed at least 7,000 devices to public hospitals in SA.
The ventilators were paid for by the Solidarity Fund, which contributed about R250m towards the initiative.
Department of trade, industry and competition spokesperson Sidwell Medupe told Sunday Times Daily that of the 20,000 non-invasive ventilators that South African Radio Astronomy Observatory (SARAO) was mandated to manage, 18,000 units had been produced and 7,000 distributed.
The Council for Scientific and Industrial Research (CSIR) was contracted to produce 18,000 units, while the SA Ventilator Emergency Project was contracted to produce 2,000 units.
In April this year the department of trade, industry and competition mandated the South African Radio Astronomy Observatory (SARAO) to manage the national effort required for the local design, development, production and procurement of respiratory ventilators to support the government s
’ response to combat the Covid19 pandemic. SARAO has been mandated to manage the National Ventilator Project based on the experience it gained in the development of complex systems for the MeerKAT radio telescope, a precursor to the world s largest Square Kilometre Array (SKA) radio telescope. ”
The distribution of ventilators is managed by the national department of health. So far, the majority of the ventilators have been distributed to public hospitals in Gauteng, with 2,417, KwaZulu-Natal 2,051, Free State 648, Limpopo 457, North West 445 and Eastern Cape 400, based on the demand as communicated by the department of health,” he said.
Last week, the Eastern Cape health department, which is battling with increasing Covid19 cases, said reports that it was running out of ventilators and oxygenation equipment were fake news. There are no oxygen problems. [The] number of oxygenated beds has been increased,” departmental spokesperson Sizwe Khupelo said.
However, private hospital group Netcare has sent additional oxygenation equipment and volunteer staff from other Netcare operations to Port Elizabeth to bolster its services in the Eastern Cape.
The distribution of ventilators is managed by the national department of health