Western Daily Press (Saturday)

Device may stop spread of Covid-19 in hospitals

- STEPHEN SUMNER Local Democracy Reporter

ARETIRED GP turned inventor has designed a device he believes could stop hospital patients with Covid-19 spreading their infection.

Dr Richard Lawson has spent the past six weeks trying to get his invention, a hood which filters the air breathed out by infectious patients, cleared for use.

Bureaucrac­ies have been slowed down by the pandemic, he said, but he just wants to help because people are dying.

“We have a serious, serious problem with hospital-acquired infection by staff and by patients,” said Dr Lawson, who lives in Churchill.

“People go into hospital – not just Weston General – for a different thing and they catch Covid-19.

“This is a serious problem throughout the world. If the patient isn’t on a respirator, they are breathing out droplets and aerosols into rooms and corridors, and exposing people to risk.”

Those particles can linger in the air for 30 minutes or more, and contaminat­e surfaces, he said, adding:

“I’m addressing the risk with a simple piece of technology.

“Patients are provided with a hood and the air is pumped out through a filter. It’s as simple as that.

“There’s a beautiful piece of kit for frontline healthcare workers designed by the University of Southampto­n called a PeRSo [Personal Respirator Southampto­n] that pumps clean air into a hood. My idea is an inversion of that.”

Dr Lawson, a former Woodspring councillor and Congresbur­y GP, describes himself as a “prolific inventor and a completely useless businessma­n”. He has also created the bramble hook for cutting brambles and a stand for bike maintenanc­e.

He said: “It’s not a business propositio­n. I just want it to take place because people are dying.

“The pandemic has been extremely badly handled by the Government, which is why we’re top of the European leagues for deaths per million population. We aren’t doing well.

“Test and trace is just tragic. It really needs to come down to local level. Environmen­tal health officers could be doing it a lot better.”

Colin Bradbury, from the Bristol, North Somerset and South Gloucester­shire clinical commission­ing group, told councillor­s on Thursday that a colleage would speak to Dr Lawson about his invention.

 ??  ?? > The invention is a hood which filters the air breathed out by infectious patients
> The invention is a hood which filters the air breathed out by infectious patients

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