The Canadian government’s response to address patient ventilator needs early during the COVID-19 pandemic has resulted in an excessive surplus of equipment that has been idle since being acquired.
More than half of the 40,000 ventilators the Canadian government ordered early in the pandemic are now sitting unused in the federal emergency stockpile.
Just over 2,000 of the ventilators have been deployed, either in Canada or abroad. Ottawa is now working to cancel orders for ventilators that have yet to be delivered, but won’t say how much it has paid for the machines.
In the spring of 2020, Canada rushed to shore up supplies of medical and personal protective equipment as Covid-19 case numbers climbed. Dire headlines out of Italy and New York warned of an acute shortage of ventilators for those who were critically ill. A global surge in demand meant Canada could no longer rely on international supply chains.
Read the full article at Politico.
