Ventilator cash ‘would have been better spent on PPE’

MILLIONS of pounds awarded to companies to design new ventilators would have been better spent on PPE for front-line staff, an independent government adviser has said.

Instead of focusing on ramping up production of existing and approved prototypes, manufacturers were given more than £50million to create new ones, The Sunday Telegraph can reveal.

Matt Hancock, the Health Secretary, launched a call to arms on March 14 for UK manufacturers to join efforts to build ventilators for Covid-19 patients.

At least 12 designs were too “risky” to use on patients, Prof Derek Hill, of University College London, a member

‘All the effort and money that was put into ventilators – imagine that had been spent on PPE?’

of the Independent Regulatory Advisory Group to the Rapidly Manufactured Ventilator Systems, said.

During the project, Prof Hill said “political events” caused the Government embarrassment over the slow development of the machines. The team were told to “focus on the most basic designs which could be made quickest, but actually (they were) probably not the right ones clinically”, he said.

“It would ultimately have been much more sensible to focus on protecting staff and vulnerable patients. All the effort and money that was put into ventilators – imagine that had been spent on PPE?” he added. “I think, in retrospect, that’s where (the money) would have been much better spent.”

A Cabinet Office spokesman said: “Thanks to the extraordinary national effort, the NHS has not been overwhelmed, almost 5,000 new-build machines are ready to save lives on the front line and everyone who needed a ventilator has had access to one.”