Ventilators: Why are they used to treat coronavirus, how many do the NHS have and will we run out?

Boris Johnson has urged manufacturers to join ‘national effort’ to produce NHS equipment

Britain is in dire need of ventilators as it faces the growing coronavirus outbreak.

Engineers have been asked to draw up plans to quickly produce more ventilators in the UK, with Boris Johnson urging manufacturers to join a “national effort” to produce equipment for the NHS.

Ventilators are used to treat respiratory diseases such as Covid-19.

They work as an artificial set of lungs, providing oxygen to the body and removing carbon dioxide.

The UK currently has around 6,699 adult mechanical ventilators in the NHS, as well as a further 750 paediatric ventilators which can be re-purposed, NHS chief executive Sir Simon Stevens told the Health Select Committee chairman Jeremy Hunt on Tuesday.

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There were also an estimated 691 in the private sector and 35 in the Ministry of Defence, bringing the total to 8,175, he said.

He added: “For some weeks now we have been out preparing and procuring our mechanical ventilators, and can see a line of sight over the next several weeks to another 3,799.”

Mr Hancock, the health secretary, told Sophy Ridge On Sunday: “We start with around 5,000 ventilators, we think we need many times more than that, and we are saying if you produce a ventilator then we will buy it.

“No number is too high.”

He added: “They are relatively complicated pieces of kit, I couldn’t make one, but they’re not so complicated that the advanced manufacturing that this country is so good at now can’t be able to turn its production lines over to.

“We’ve been talking to a whole host of companies about it and the prime minister is hosting a conference call today with them to say very clearly to the nation’s manufacturers, ventilators are the thing that we are going to need, and frankly, right across the world, the demand for them is incredibly high, so it is not possible to produce too many.

“So anybody who can should turn production and their engineering minds over to the production of ventilators.”

He added: “The thing the NHS needs now more than anything else is more ventilators.

“We’ve been buying as many as we can but we need to produce more too.”

Mr Hancock said he could not make guarantees that everyone who requires a ventilator will get one, saying: “We don’t make guarantees in healthcare.”

However, engineers have said they are sceptical about the government’s chances of “ramping up” production of ventilators.

Professor David Delpy, a Fellow of the Royal Academy of Engineering, said: “This proposal assumes that the NHS wants more of the latest spec ventilators with all the usual manufacturers’ guarantees and liability cover.

“Since modern ventilators are usually electronically controlled with a variety of built-in sensors, there may be supply chain limitations on how rapidly one can ramp up production.

“The previous generation of mechanical ventilators were relatively simpler, and components could be manufactured by many engineering companies with fairly standard machine tools.

“These are certainly adequate for all but the most complex ventilation support cases, but I suspect there are currently no UK manufacturers of these since there is no NHS market for them.”

A spokesman for health technology company, Philips, said it was “in the process of increasing our production for these critical products and solutions”.

He added: “We are actively engaging with the relevant stakeholders, including governments, health authorities such as the World Health Organisation, and healthcare providers to discuss their needs.

“At the same time, we are closely collaborating with our suppliers to get the supplies (materials, components etc.) that are needed for our increased production.”

Asked whether there was concern that the NHS had gone into the crisis without enough ventilators, the prime minister’s official spokesman said: “We are facing what is an unprecedented situation.

“That’s going to require an unprecedented response and that’s why the prime minister is urging industry to work with government. The response has been a positive one.”

Additional reporting by agencies