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Posted on 03/19/2020 12:51:53 PM PDT by Red Badger
Industry sceptical after Number 10 asks for more than 20,000 British-made devices in two weeks
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The government is scrambling to piece together a design for a British-made medical ventilator “from scratch” to help treat severe coronavirus cases in the UK, even as businesses warned that it was unrealistic to ask companies to build an entirely new model.
Officials, concerned that restrictions on global trade will hamper imports of equipment and components, have contacted manufacturers to explore hastily setting up new lines to make the medical devices in the UK.
They are seeking to radically increase the number of ventilators available to the National Health Service.
In a telephone conference with the heads of big engineering companies on Monday evening, Boris Johnson, the prime minister, called for more than 20,000 ventilators to be made within two weeks, according to two executives with knowledge of the discussion.
Over the weekend Matt Hancock, the health secretary, had said that the NHS has only 5,000 ventilators, which deliver oxygen to patients unable to breathe alone, and that it would need “many times more than that”.
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Officials have separately written to business leaders laying out the requirements for a “rapidly manufactured ventilation system”. This would be deployed in hospitals for people suffering from severe respiratory symptoms.
However, bosses have warned that they need a licensed design before they can start the manufacturing process. “We can’t make one up,” one executive said.
“We can produce a licensed design, but not a wholly new one,” he said. “We have more than enough capacity to help but we need a design that is certified.”
As the UK death toll rose to at least 71 and a lockdown similar to other European countries loomed, the government has urged industry to help by equipping the NHS with more of the machines. A hotline has been set up for businesses that feel they can contribute.
In Monday’s telephone conference with more than 60 leading manufacturing businesses and organisations, Mr Johnson asked whether they could repurpose their factories and help step up production of medical equipment.
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Among the manufacturers contacted by the government were JCB, the carmakers Jaguar Land Rover, Honda, Vauxhall and Ford, and Dyson, which operates factories in Asia.
A two-page indicative specification document seen by the Financial Times lists “key operating parameters” for a ventilator. These include a stipulation that it “be made from materials and parts readily available in the UK supply chain” in anticipation of controls on international freight movement.
The document included links to a YouTube video with a description of a simple ventilator and an academic paper published in 2010 containing a proposed system for a rapidly deployable device.
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However, industry figures have privately expressed scepticism over the government’s plans, not least because medical devices need regulatory approval that typically takes weeks or months, depending on complexity and risk.
“We’re in a very difficult situation but it’s not something you could get into in a short timeframe,” said one adviser to industry. “You’ve got to set up the supply chain, which is not easy.”
The Medicines and Healthcare Products Regulatory Agency said it could take “swift action to allow medical devices without formal regulatory approval to be used in the UK in the interests of the protection of health”.
The agency added that it was helping government draw up “appropriate specifications for additional ventilators”.
One government official said: “We are working out how to get these machines to the front line as fast as we can. We are looking at how best to ensure they are quality controlled but not held up.”
Several industry executives said that British motorsport groups would be better placed to help, rather than large carmakers whose large facilities are less suitable. A car industry executive said: “What makes them think we carmakers know how to make ventilators and that a car factory assembly line is even vaguely appropriate?”
One possibility is that companies with expertise in medical technology will send technical experts to advise other manufacturers, said a person familiar with the discussions.
A number of Britain’s carmakers have space on their sites because of falling output, leading to the closure of some lines or parts of factories, including Nissan in Sunderland, Honda in Swindon, Vauxhall at Ellesmere Port and Ford’s engine plant at Bridgend.
“If the government wants to install the kit, space can definitely be found,” said a director at one UK car plant.
The British arm of Breas Medical, a Swedish company that makes ventilators in the UK, told the FT: “Our priorities now are to meet the demands and questions from the NHS and customers.”
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Another devices manufacturer in the UK, Smiths Medical, said: “We are currently working with the government to support them where we can in their efforts to tackle Covid-19.”
Following the call on Monday, a Downing Street spokesperson said: “The prime minister made clear that responding to coronavirus and reducing the spread of the peak requires a national effort. He asked manufacturers 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. He set the ambition for industry to manufacture as many new ventilators as possible, so we can all help the most vulnerable and our NHS, whose staff have been working round the clock.”
This article has been amended since publication to clarify the number of ventilators industry has been asked to produce
Buddy in the UK said Rolls Royce was going to make them. That will be a damn nice ventilator...
I’d be worried about the Jaguar ventilators since they are electric.
The burl wood panels and ebony knobs will be a nice touch.................
By the time they get them, they won’t need them.
Is Bentley still around?
Rolls = BMW, so the electrical bits are not quite as big a worry. Fortunately, BMW is also used to turning out more than a few units per month, so there’s that.
Unlike the Lucas one that won't work at night.
I was getting ready to post, Do not let Lucas build ventilators—unless they are for the Chinese export market.
taiwan will be making some for the usa. perhaps taiwan/we can share some with the brits.
The Brits are brilliant and entrepreneurial, so methinks some of their private enterprise folks could pull it off.
However, I’d avoid any ventilator that has the name Lucas printed anywhere on the device. ;-)
Is it the auto folks (BMW) or the aircraft engine folks which is a totally different company?
My SIL works for the aircraft engine folks here in the US.
Formula 1 design and production is mostly in the UK. They are experts in compressed design and manufacture cycles.
very, very instructive to read the full article, which can be read using the “Just Read” extension to the chrome browser
it paints a picture of almost pure chaos, with the brits so far gone in their domestic industrial capability that it looks nearly hopeless for them to produce ventilators domestically ...
“Buddy in the UK said Rolls Royce was going to make them.”
an yet the FT article says:
“Among the manufacturers contacted by the government were the carmakers Jaguar Land Rover, Honda, Vauxhall and Ford” ...
Several industry executives said that British motorsport groups would be better placed to help, rather than large carmakers whose large facilities are less suitable. A car industry executive said: “What makes them think we carmakers know how to make ventilators and that a car factory assembly line is even vaguely appropriate?””
There's no mention of the aircraft engine side of the business, so I believe this is all automotive. IIRC, VW owned some of the Rolls-Royce automotive designs for a while, which were in turn licensed or sold to BMW.
We're all in this together, you know - so let the Iranians have some, too!
And the built in umbrella!
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