28 January 2024 , 21:48
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Thousands of ventilators bought for £50,000 each during the pandemic are being sold for as little as £100, the Mirror can reveal.
Many of them were never used. The Good Law Project found the machines up for grabs at online auctions, after being kept in expensive storage facilities. Last week, we watched lots going unsold, suggesting prices may have to be slashed even further.
The Good Law Project’s Jo Maugham said: “The Government held on to these ventilators for four years before selling them for peanuts. We lost money buying them and we have wasted money storing them. On pandemic storage alone we’ve spent over a thousand million pounds.”
Shadow Chancellor of the Duchy of Lancaster Pat McFadden added: “The Tories have shown they can’t be trusted with public money.”
The ventilators are being sold online
Graham Watson, co-chair of the medical aid charity Medi Tech Trust, told the Mirror: "The best outcome from a humanitarian point of view is that we don't take peanuts for them - we give them for free to countries which could really make use of them.
“Think how much good we could do. Perhaps they could sell to us directly and not go through the middle man."
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One firm, Excalibur Healthcare won a £135million contract in April 2020 to supply 2,700 Aeonmed VG-70 ICU ventilators, costing £50,000 each. The Department of Health and Social Care last month signed a £300,000 deal with Kuenhe and Nagel for “logistics, storage, handling and auctioning services”.
The firm is selling gear via British Medical Auctions, including 3,068 ventilators.
The DHSC said: “We are taking action to save taxpayers’ money on storage costs by reducing the stockpiles of ICU equipment which are no longer necessary including by selling or donating excess equipment.”
The Mirror told last year how hundreds of specially-made beds bought for £2,500 each in the pandemic were selling online for as little as £6.