Engineers from formula 1, Rolls-Royce and Airbus are making ten years worth of ventilators in 10 weeks amid the coronavirus pandemic, a consortium boss has revealed.
VentilatorChallengeUK (VCUK) consortium head Dick Elsy, which was formed in mid-March following calls for companies to shift production to ventilators, said a ‘dream team of British engineering’ was at the helm of the ‘major industrial scale-up’.
Mr Elsy said: ‘We’re going to get through sort of 10 years worth of ventilator production in almost as many weeks.’
‘We’ve only been together for just over a month and we’ve achieved in a month what would normally take 18 months or two years.6’
Medical device companies Penlon and Smiths Medical would typically produce a total of 50 to 60 ventilators per week.
VentilatorChallengeUK (VCUK) consortium head Dick Elsy, which was formed in mid-March following calls for companies to shift production to ventilators, said a ‘dream team of British engineering’ was at the helm of the ‘major industrial scale-up’ (file image)
‘The consortium brings together the pace of engineering of Formula 1, the robust manufacturing processes of big industry like Rolls-Royce and Airbus and the exacting standards of clinical device manufacturing,’ he added.
With the work of the consortium, production of newly-adapted ventilators will be up to 1,500 per week by next month and the Government has placed orders for 20,000 units.
The medical device approval process can take up to nine months, however Penlon’s Prima ES02 model was authorised by the Medicines and Healthcare products Regulatory Agency (MHRA) in around three weeks.
The ventilator, which is based on an existing model, was approved for use in hospitals on April 16 after adjustments were made following feedback from clinicians.
‘As they’re learning about patients with the disease in hospital, they’re finding out new things all the time so they asked for some additional functionality which we were able to engineer in within 24 hours,’ Mr Elsy added.
Around 250 units have been sent out so far, including to the NHS Nightingale Hospital in London, and 15,000 of the Penlon model have been ordered by the Government.
The Government has also placed 5,000 orders for the Smiths Medical ParaPac model, which was already being built but has seen production scaled up.
Mr Elsy (pictured) described the engineers working on the ventilators as a ‘dream team’
Mr Elsy said: ‘If more are required and we need stuff faster we can put extra facilities in if necessary but it seems to be in a balanced place at the moment where we’re producing for the Government’s demand.’
Ventilator production in the consortium involves around 3,000 staff from 20 companies in 10 sites.
The group’s head added: ‘The whole thing is being driven by people who are on top of their game at managing complicated programmes whether that’s putting aeroplanes in the sky or winning races.
‘The number of people assembling ventilators is more than would assemble a Ford Fiesta, we’re having to industrialise to that level to produce the systems.’
Units are being made at cost, with each device costing a few thousand pounds to produce.
‘There’s a sense of pride that we’ve managed to pull this into what look like very sensible numbers,’ he added.
Mr Elsy, who is chief executive of the High Value Manufacturing Catapult, said the group’s work had prompted international interest and he was convinced the collaboration would continue post-pandemic.
It comes after the Government faced scrutiny over why new ventilators were being designed from scratch – adding precious time on to the production process.
Coronavirus patients are put onto ventilators when their condition deteriorates and they struggle to breathe which means that a high fatality rate is expected.
Number 10 previously stressed it is working with businesses currently manufacturing ventilators, as well as design companies, in order to increase the number of machines for those suffering from the most severe effects of coronavirus.
Coronavirus patients are put onto ventilators when their condition deteriorates and they struggle to breathe which means that a high fatality rate is expected (file image)
Dyson, the British company known for its vacuum cleaners and hand dryers, has already confirmed it will step in to produce ventilators for the NHS.
Private hospitals last month struck a deal to supply almost 1,200 ventilators to the NHS, as the UK looked to increase availability from 8,000 to 30,000.
The PM’s spokesman told reporters: ‘We have been in discussion with over 3,000 businesses who have come forward to offer support, whether that be in design, in manufacturing or delivery.
‘Our focus is on supporting established UK manufacturers to increase production of already-approved machines to help them reach the NHS more quickly.
‘We are testing proof of concepts from a number of suppliers with the support of a team of expert clinicians.’
Vets were also asked to supply mechanical ventilators which are usually used on animals, with the Royal College of Veterinary Surgeons (RCVS) writing to practices to call for donations suitable for human use.
In a Facebook post, the RCVS issued an ‘urgent nationwide call for NHS-compatible ventilators and other equipment’ that could be ‘vital in helping frontline medical professionals combat the coronavirus pandemic’.