UCL, NIHR and Mercedes create non-invasive breathing aid, as consortium works on 10,000 ventilators
Engineers, industry and clinicians have developed a breathing device to help the NHS in the fight against coronavirus.
Engineers at UCL, clinicians at the National Institute for Health Research’s University College London Hospitals Biomedical Research Centre and Mercedes AMG High Performance Powertrains have created a non-invasive breathing aid which can be “produced rapidly and manufactured in the thousands”.
Similar devices, known as Continuous Positive Airway Pressure, have already been used in China and Italy to help Covid-19 patients with serious lung infections to breathe more easily, the NIHR announced on 30 March.
The technology has now been approved for clinical use by the UK’s health secretary Matt Hancock, with 40 devices set to be delivered to UCLH for clinical trials ahead of a “rapid roll-out to hospitals around the country”.
“These devices will help save lives by ensuring that ventilators, a limited resource, are used only for the most severely ill,” said UCLH critical care consultant Mervyn Singer.
“We hope they will make a real difference to hospitals across the UK by reducing demand on intensive care staff and beds, as well as helping patients recover without the need for more invasive ventilation.”
Meanwhile, a consortium of industrial, technology and engineering businesses led by the High Value Manufacturing Catapult, has joined forces to produce medical ventilators.
Companies in the consortium have now received more than 10,000 orders from the government, the group of manufacturing research centres announced on 30 March.
Dick Elsy, the Catapult’s chief executive, said: “Every day, their highly-skilled staff collaborate to create solutions that help millions of people, and this project is no different.
“They are working together with incredible determination and energy to scale up production of much-needed ventilators and combat a virus that is affecting people in many countries.”
The news comes after the Financial Times reported on 27 March that the UK government had missed opportunities to acquire more medical ventilators through equipment suppliers and the European Union.
Responding to the claims, the UK government said there are more than 8,000 ventilators available to NHS patients, with another 8,000 expected from existing international manufacturers in the coming weeks.
“We have also been clear that the UK must step up production of ventilators even further to support the UK’s response to the virus and save lives,” the government said.
It added that it had partnered with “a number of the UK’s leading technology and engineering firms [and] with smaller manufacturers to rapidly build existing, modified or newly designed ventilators at speed, with seven priority projects underway”.
According to the Department for Health and Social Care, as of 29 March there had been 19,522 positive cases of Covid-19 in the UK, while 1,228 of these had died.