Scramble to get firms to make ventilators with more people falling sick
New ventilator in only 3 days St John’s give NHS 100 crews
A FAMILY engineering firm took three days to develop a special ventilator to ease symptoms.
CR Clarke & Co usually design plastic fabrication equipment on a small industrial park.
The Covid Emergency Ventilator successfully treated a patient on Saturday and now the Welsh government has said 100 can be made a day.
The firm in Ammanford, South Wales, was approached by Dr Rhys Thomas, who devised the machine based on Italian advice.
He said: “It won’t replace an ICU ventilator but the majority won’t need intensive care if treated with this ventilator first.”
MATT Hancock last night called for 250,000 volunteers to help the stretched NHS step up the war on the deepening coronavirus crisis.
As the death toll from Covid-19 yesterday hit 422, after the biggest leap of victims in one day at 87, the Health Secretary urged fit Brits to support the 1.4 million vulnerable people who are “shielding” for three months.
His plea came after the Government revealed it has bought 3.5 million antibody tests which can tell if someone has had the virus. They will be available “within weeks”.
And the Army starting delivering tens of thousands of face masks to hospitals – with 50,000 going to St Thomas’ in London, the UK epicentre of the pandemic. Troops will also
PLEA Mr Hancock called for volunteers begin sending personal protective equipment to 242 NHS sites after medics complained of shortages and feeling like “cannon fodder”.
The Army is also converting the ExCeL centre in London’s Docklands into a makeshift health unit, called the NHS Nightingale Hospital. Mr Hancock said the volunteers will help patients with blood cancers, recipients of organ transplants and those with serious lung diseases who have been ordered to isolate. He added: “Today we launch NHS volunteers. “We are seeking a quarter of a million volunteers, people in good health to help the NHS, for shopping, for the delivery of medicines and to support those who are shielding.”
Mr Hancock revealed 11,307 retired doctors, ex-nurses, former pharmacists and other staff have already answered the call to help the NHS.
They will be joined at the front line by 24,200 final-year medical students and nurses. The Health Secretary added: “I pay tribute to each and every one of those who is returning to the NHS at its hour of need.
“Many, many people are asking for more personal protective equipment. “Over the last 24 hours we have shipped 7.5 million pieces of equipment, especially masks.”
Ministers are scrambling to build thousands of ventilators to support virus sufferers before the NHS reaches capacity. And doctors and nurses have been ordered to care for more patients than is normally deemed safe.
Intensive care units have changed requirements to have one registered nurse to one patient to one for every six, supported by two non-specialist nurses and two healthcare assistants.
But Royal College of Nursing chief executive Dame Donna Kinnair warned: “We never had enough nurses before Covid-19 came along.
“We know there are going to be an unprecedented number of people who are sick and requiring ventilation.”
And Mr Hancock faced questions yesterday from his predecessor Jeremy Hunt as to why the UK is testing less than a fifth of the 25,000 people Boris Johnson promised would be daily.
Mr Hunt said: “We appear to be testing on a daily basis virtually no more people than over a week ago.
“Can he give us an estimated date when we will get back to routine Covid-19 testing in the community of all suspected cases?”
Mr Hancock refused to give a date