Calls to step up production of ventilators for coronavirus are ‘pointless’ without additional staff

Boris Johnson’s call to ramp up the production of ventilators for coronavirus patients is ‘pointless’ without more staff and extra equipment, leading medics have warned.

The Prime Minister issued an appeal to manufacturers over the weekend to switch their production lines and help manufacture the life-saving breathing machines. 

But experts warned there were not enough fully qualified intensive care staff to operate the ventilators, which also require a host of supplementary pieces of kit to function. 

And they said that it could take weeks, if not months, to ensure the equipment is manufactured to a professional standard and safe to roll out across the country.  

The coronavirus outbreak has claimed the lives of 56 people and infected more than 1,500 in the UK.

Boris Johnson’s call to ramp up the production of ventilators for coronavirus patients is ‘pointless’ without more staff and extra equipment, medics warn

The NHS only has 5,000 of the machines and the Health Secretary Matt Hancock said on Sunday it will need 'many times more than that' in the weeks and months ahead.

The NHS only has 5,000 of the machines and the Health Secretary Matt Hancock said on Sunday it will need ‘many times more than that’ in the weeks and months ahead.

The coronavirus outbreak has claimed the lives of 56 people and infected more than 1,500 in the UK

The coronavirus outbreak has claimed the lives of 56 people and infected more than 1,500 in the UK

Nicki Credland, chair of the British Association of Critical Care Nurses, told Nursing Times: ‘That’s an absolute guarantee – we simply do not have them. We will need to look at diluting our workforce to be able to manage the situation. 

‘If you’re an intensive care patient who requires ventilation, you require a lot of other things as well as ventilation.

‘There appears not to be plans about where we’re going to get all of that extra kit or expertise from either.’ 

Dr Rinesh Parmar, chair of the Doctor’s Association UK, added: ‘Whilst NHS hospitals make emergency plans to create ITU [intensive treatment unit] beds and the government purchases more ventilators, the elephant in the room is the lack of highly trained intensive care nurses and doctors.

‘It is pointless acquiring new ventilators without enough highly trained staff to operate them.’

Dr Parmar added that securing more capacity in private hospitals could well free up more space to treat coronavirus patients needing breathing assistance.

But he warned there were still too few intensive care beds within these hospitals.

He added: ‘The systematic under-resourcing of the NHS and exodus of staff that the government has presided over has ultimately left the country with a severe lack of specialist intensive care nurses and doctors.’

Helen Meese, vice chair of biomedical engineering at the Institution of Mechanical Engineers, said there were several constraints on using non-medical firms to manufacture the ventilators. 

Dr Meese told the Health Service Journal: ‘Ventilation equipment, like all medical devices, is very strictly regulated to ensure patient safety. 

‘We must be clear, that while many engineering companies and individuals have come forward to support this initiative, it will take several weeks, if not months, to ensure the right processes are in place to increase production of these precision parts.’ 

The NHS only has 5,000 of the machines and the Health Secretary Matt Hancock said on Sunday it will need ‘many times more than that’ in the weeks and months ahead.

Mr Johnson wants non-health care companies to step up and help build the artificial respirators and last night he hosted a call with more than 60 company chiefs to urge them to convert production lines.

Participants with knowledge of the call said the government wants to have the ventilator push ‘on stream’ within the next fortnight.

It was claimed by one person who reportedly participated in the call that Mr Johnson had ‘joked’ the coordinated effort to build the machines could be known as ‘Operation Last Gasp’. 

The person who made the claim to Politico said the PM ‘couldn’t help but act the clown’ as he hosted the call with CEOs.

Mr Johnson’s attempt to mobilise the UK’s manufacturing sector has drawn comparisons with a scrap metal scheme to build Spitfires during the Second World War.

Leading companies such as JCB and Dyson have been asked to divert resources to building more ventilators as the spread of the disease worsens.

A Downing Street spokesman said after yesterday’s call that manufacturers had been asked to ‘rise to this immediate challenge by offering skills and expertise as well as manufacturing the components themselves’.

‘Businesses can get involved in any part of the process: design, procurement, assembly, testing, and shipping,’ the spokesman said.

Mr Hancock said before the call that there had already been an ‘enthusiastic response’ from businesses.

However, there have been warnings that components might be hard to source amid further concerns about how much time it will take for companies to change their production process.

Experts have also cautioned that an increase in artificial respirators will be no use unless there are enough health service staff capable of operating them.

One executive told the Financial Times that industry will be ‘very supportive’ of the push but warned it ‘has to be be driven by Downing Street’.

Another executive said if there were companies already making the machines and they want to switch to 24/7 production other businesses would be willing to ‘lend them people to run the factories’.

Stephen Phipson, head of the Make UK industry body, said there are only a couple of small firms that manufacture ventilators in the UK, but there was a ‘whole sector’ that does ‘contract’ manufacturing.

‘You take one person’s product then you build it to their design, then you sell it,’ he told Sky News.

Mr Hancock said on Sunday that ventilators will be key in the fight against coronavirus.

He said: ‘It’s about ventilation, because it’s a respiratory disease. So we will be stopping some other activity and asking doctors who normally do other things to retrain, to be able to, for instance, use the ventilator.’

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