Hundreds of new ventilators are being turned out in UK factories

HUNDREDS of new ventilators were being manufactured in the UK every day and more had been sourced from abroad in the fight against coronavirus.

Cabinet Office Minister Michael Gove revealed yesterday 300 ventilators had arrived from China.

Mr Gove said the new Nightingale Hospital at London’s ExCel centre can treat 500 patients on ventilators.

He said more field hospitals are being built in Cardiff, Birmingham, Bristol, Belfast, Glasgow, Harrogate and Manchester.

Mr Gove said the NHS and the military are “accelerating their existing work” to turn Birmingham’s National Exhibition Centre into a field hospital due to the rise in infections in the region.

Mr Gove said a team from University College London working with Mercedes-Benz has produced a new non-invasive respirator that has been clinically approved.

He said the device is vital in reducing the number of patients who eventually need to be intubated.

Mr Gove said yesterday: “They produced 250 yesterday, they will produce the same number today and tomorrow, rising to 1,000 a day next week.

“We are also increasing the capacity of the NHS to deploy invasive ventilation, we have been buying invasive ventilators from partners abroad including Germany and Switzerland. And today 300 new ventilators arrived from China.”

Mr Gove continued that the Government is also working with UK ventilator suppliers to manufacture

existing and modified models in greater numbers.

He said new models have been designed to come on stream soon.

Mr Gove said: “The new models that have been scaled up as part of the Ventilator Challenge (a brief put to a consortium of manufacturers) will becoming on production lines this week.

“More are coming into production in the coming weeks, subject to safety and regulatory approvals, as part of the Prime Minister’s call to manufacturers to scale up production.”

Mr Gove said the first devices ordered from Oxford-based medical devices company Penlon will begin arriving in hospitals next week, delivered by the Ministry of Defence.

He said the first devices from Smiths Group had been received at

MoD Donnington – a military logistics hub in Shropshire.

Mr Gove said: “The initial dispatch is the result of scaled up manufacturing of an existing mechanical ventilator design and I am grateful for the efforts of an industry consortium including GKN Aerospace and RollsRoyce.

“These ventilators will be distributed to hospitals next week.”