HSE chose patients over 'financial risk' in ventilator orders, spending watchdog hears

None of the 467 ventilators received from China were ever used due to issues with their quality. File picture: AP/John Minchillo

The HSE's chief financial officer has told the State's spending watchdog that the HSE "chose to put patient risk ahead of financial risk" in its efforts to buy ventilators at the beginning of the covid-19 pandemic.

The HSE ordered 3,500 ventilators at the outbreak of the pandemic, 10 times more than what was needed and 1,500 more than had been officially sanctioned.

Stephen Mulvany told the Public Accounts Committee (PAC) hearing on Thursday he would "totally disagree" that there had been a breakdown in command and control that led to the order.

"There is no evidence of planning in any country, certainly not in Europe, that would have managed to deal with what was faced at the time," he said.

"There was no breakdown in management at the HSE, we chose to put patient risk ahead of financial risk," he said, while stating that true clarity on the number of machines needed was not achieved until several weeks after the procurement began.

"We were faced with scenes from Italy of people not knowing who to ventilate and who not to ventilate," Mr Mulvany said.

He said when it became clear the vast majority of the ventilators sought would not be required "we started cancelling orders".

The PAC meeting was being held with regard to a report into the €81m spent on ventilators from non-standard suppliers at the beginning of the covid pandemic.

None of the 467 ventilators received from China were ever used due to issues with their quality, while €22.3m of the money spent remains outstanding pending legal actions against four different suppliers.

No business case prepared

That report by the Comptroller and Auditor General concluded no business case had been prepared in terms of the figure of 1,900 ventilators which the HSE had deemed necessary to procure in the months of March and April 2020.

The C&AG subsequently recommended that practical guidelines be put in place for public bodies around such advance payments.

Mr Mulvany accepted it was his team which had prepared the weekly reports for the Department of Public Expenditure at the time which had excluded those payments.

Despite saying he accepted the C&AG's findings, including that the flash reports had been misleading, Mr Mulvany said the reports had been "clear" in that they "wouldn't capture all costs" and were "indicative only".

"They weren't intended to mislead anybody," he said.

"I’d prefer in hindsight that there was a cash figure as well, but I certainly never heard that anyone felt misled."

Mr Mulvany said the 102 ventilators still subject to legal dispute remain in storage in a "heated building" in north Dublin, at a rental cost of roughly €75,000 over three years.

He said further that roughly €500,000 has been spent on legal costs to date over the €50m which had been in dispute, some €30m of which has since been recouped.