State health officials spent hundreds of millions to stock up on ventilators and x-ray machines at the height of the Covid-19 pandemic – most of which were never used, a new audit found.
The Department of Health purchased $450 million worth of medical equipment that has now sat in storage without proper maintenance for years, according to a report released by state Comptroller Thomas DiNapoli on Friday. The audit, which spans from January 2020 to March 2024, points to the state’s scramble to procure hundreds of thousands of medical devices in the early days of the pandemic, many of which now rack up storage costs and are not being adequately maintained for future public health emergencies.
“During the pandemic, New York state quickly purchased medical equipment to address the public health crisis,” DiNapoli said in a statement. “Now, hundreds of thousands of unused devices sit idle.”
The comptroller urged the Health Department to develop a strategic plan to maintain and use the rest of its Covid-19 stockpile,” so New York is well prepared for the next public health emergency.”
Marissa Crary, a spokeswoman for the Department of Health, said the public health emergency changed procurement protocols, adding that procurements flagged in the audit were outside of the agency’s purview.
“The Comptroller’s recent audit reviewed select procurements made during the COVID-19 health emergency when the state’s standard processes were suspended, due to an unprecedented, extraordinary need for medical countermeasures that could make the difference between life or death for New Yorkers,” Crary said.
The agency “regularly reviews and maintains all equipment currently available in the emergency medical stockpile, takes actionable measures as appropriate, and maintains transparent documentation of these measures,” Crary added.
When the state first declared a Covid-19 public health emergency, then-Gov. Andrew Cuomo took steps to expedite the procurement process, allowing officials to quickly buy ventilators and x-ray machines. State health officials maintain that those procurement changes led the bulk of emergency spending to be centralized within the executive chamber and outside the scope of the Department of Health. Still, the mass purchases created a scramble of credit card transactions and equipment deliveries that health officials could not keep track of, the comptroller’s audit said.
In one instance, state officials spent $312,000 on 140 pieces of medical equipment, but health officials had no record that those devices were ever delivered, according to the audit.
The Department of Health added roughly 247,000 pieces of medical equipment such as ventilators, oxygen tanks and CPAP machines to the state’s stockpile in preparation for the Covid-19 crisis. Officials distributed just 324 items from the state’s stockpile during the public health emergency – only three of which were purchased specifically for Covid-19, the comptroller found.
Of the equipment that remains in storage, most is not maintained, putting it at risk of damage that could render it unusable for future public health emergencies, the report said. A medical stockpile committee developed a plan for the state to maintain 50,000 of its medical devices – leaving officials without a plan for the remaining 200,000 pieces of equipment in storage.
The comptroller recommended that the state improve its record-keeping to track medical equipment in future public health crises, as well as develop a strategic public health plan to use and maintain its surplus of supplies. The Health Department has maintained that the former executive chamber was responsible for the bulk of emergency medical equipment spending and storage, adding that it is confident in its ability to assess and use its medical equipment stockpile, according to an agency response included in the audit.
