Amidst sharp rise in Omicron and COVID-19 infections in India, medical device manufacturers have assured that they have sufficient inventory for any worse situation and that they haven’t seen any new purchases from hospitals or medical institutions on the account of increase in cases.
Highlighting on the need for medical infrastructure, Niti Aayog member VK Paul requested the private sector also to be ready. He said, “The preparedness includes the entire health system level preparedness and private sector continues to play a very important role in managing this pandemic. They have been a key player in medical infra. We would like to request them to do the audit of the availability of oxygen, beds and facility specific SOPs.”
Ventilator manufacturers have said that in the months following the second wave of COVID-19, they utilised the time to create a reserve.
“We now have inventory of all kinds of ventilators and a variety of medical support devices are ready. We have funds and capacity available against requirement,” says Ashok Patel, CEO, AB Industries, the parent company of Max Ventilator. He adds, “Omicron has seen higher discharge rate and we haven’t seen many patients going to the stage of requiring dependency on ventilators.”
On enquiring about any preparatory purchases for equipment by hospitals on the account of rising infections, Rajiv Nath, MD, Hindustan Syringes & Medical Devices said that there isn’t any such buying for now.
Some of the manufacturers have also requested the government for proper maintenance of the devices and equipment.
“A lot of equipment purchased during first wave was not kept well and rendered unusable during second wave and new purchases were made. Private hospitals have added capacity that is fairly permanent. Govt established capacity has all signs of not being available after a few months of disuse,” says Vishwaprasad Alva, founder & MD of Skanray.
He adds, “PSUs which are staffed well should ensure that stockpile of medical devices with them are kept live and functional; checked periodically to be deployed during pandemics, natural calamities or mass emergency situations. A fully equipped and functional disaster management cell is need of every nation.”
Medical device manufacturers this year have not only tackled the sudden rise in equipment demand but also suffered from high input costs and a shortage of chips and ICs.
Patel says that due to high raw material costs, manufacturers had to spend more this year. He says that medical devices have seen 10-15% price escalation due to high input costs. However, he doesn’t anticipate another big rise in the coming months.
