Dyson, Honda and JCB could join coronavirus ventilator push

Boris Johnson is gearing up a war-style mobilisation of the state and private firms to help the NHS cope with a wave of coronavirus cases.

In a move reminiscent of the scrap metal scheme to build Spitfires, leading manufacturing companies such as JCB and Dyson have been asked to divert resources to building more ventilators.  

Health Secretary Matt Hancock revealed yesterday that the NHS only has 5,000 of the machines and will need ‘many times more than that’ in the weeks and months ahead. 

Meanwhile, there are claims the army will be drafted into transport oxygen to avoid shortages as the crisis escalates. 

Recently retired doctors and nurses are set to be brought back to bolster capacity in the health service, while testing for the disease will be focused on essential workers. 

Downing Street has issued a ‘call to arms’ to British manufacturers to boost production. 

Mr Hancock said there had been an ‘enthusiastic response’, while Labour MP Jess Phillips said a ‘couple’ of the factories in her Birmingham Yardley constituency had been ‘in touch to offer help’. 

However, there have been warnings that components might be hard to source and it will take too long for factories to switch.  

Experts have also cautioned that an increase in artificial respirators will be no use unless there are enough health service staff capable of operating them.

Meanwhile, there are growing calls for the government to ensure NHS doctors and nurses are all equipped with appropriate protective clothing as they have to deal with growing numbers of coronavirus patients.   

As Britons were urged to rally together to fight coronavirus: 

• The PM is holding a conference call with other G7 world leaders later as they try to coordinate a response to the crisis; 
• Mr Shapps said there had been an 17 per cent-20 per cent drop off in the volume of train passengers last week, as Britons reacted to the crisis;
• The FTSE dipped below the 5,000 level as the markets took fright at the enormous scale of the coronavirus threat;
• The government is appealing for manufacturers to help produce more ventilators for millions of people expected to become critically ill, but doubts have been raised about the practicalities of the idea; 
• Education Secretary Gavin Williamson is meeting school leaders later discuss potential closures and exams being postponed amid the outbreak; 
• Singapore has directly criticised the UK for arguing there is ‘no point containing’ coronavirus cases, saying that could mean numbers rise more rapidly; 
• British Airways and EasyJet have announced ‘further significant cancellations’ as a result of travel restrictions caused by the pandemic; 
• The worldwide coronavirus death toll is believed to have topped 6,500 with some 170,000 people infected; 
• Labour MP Kate Osborne has become the second politician diagnosed with coronavirus, with more than a dozen more in isolation;
• Labour has downgraded its orders for MPs to attend Parliament this week amid fears that they could become ‘superspreaders’;  

Fears over the impact of the coronavirus were laid bare today in a leaked Public Health England (PHE) briefing warning that a ‘worst case’ scenario could see an epidemic last until spring next year, and mean 7.9million needing hospital treatment.

Downing Street stressed the 7.9million figure was just the reasonable worst case scenario and ‘does not mean that is what we expect to happen’. 

France has imposed controls on its border with Germany, and transport restrictions are in force across much of Europe, with schools, pubs and restaurants closed. Austria is banning gatherings of more than five people. The US has barred all travellers from Europe. 

However, beyond urging those with a cough or a fever to self-isolate, the UK authorities have held off the most draconian steps, saying the timing must be right for them to be effective. 

The British public appears to be taking matters into their own hands today, with commuter trains unusually empty as workers opt to stay at home. Mr Shapps suggested ‘ghost’ services could be halted altogether, as airlines announced more cancellations and demanded a bailout. 

Amid rising criticism, Mr Johnson is to chair another Cobra emergency meeting later, and daily press briefings will be staged to reassure the public everything possible is being done.  

Ministers have appealed for major manfacturers to overhaul their factories to produce ventilators to help those who are most at risk from the illness. 

Dyson, Unipart Group, JCB and Honda will all be taking part in the call. Rolls Royce has already said it is ‘keen’ to help in the ventilator effort. 

A Downing Street spokesman said: ‘Preparing for the spread of the coronavirus outbreak is a national priority and we’re calling on the manufacturing industry and all those with relevant expertise who might be able to help to come together to help the country tackle this national crisis.  

‘We need to step up production of vital equipment such as ventilators so tyhat we can all help the most vulnerable, and we need businesses to come and help in this national effort.’ 

The government has now set up a specific business team which will help coordinate the efforts and Mr Hancock said today there had already been an ‘enthusiastic response’ from manufacturers.

Stephen Phipson, head of the Make UK industry body, said there are only a couple of small firms that manufacture ventilators in the UK, but there was a ‘whole sector’ that does ‘contract manufacturing.

‘You take one person’s product then you build it to their design, then you sell it,’ he told Sky News.  

‘The real issue is going to be whether you can source materials,’ he said.

He said the question was whether you could get enough raw materials, and having the capacity to get through medical regulations. 

One executive told the Financial Times that industry will be ‘very supportive’ of the push but warned it ‘has to be be driven by Downing Street’. 

Another executive said if there were companies already making the machines and they want to switch to 24/7 production other businesses would be willing to ‘lend them people to run the factories’.  

The chairman of JCB, Lord Bamford, said it had ‘research and engineering teams actively looking at the request at the moment’.

He said: ‘It’s unclear as yet if we can assist, but as a British company, we will do whatever we can to help during the unprecedented times our country is facing.’ 

However, one company told the BBC that comparisons with the accelerated production of Spitfires during the Second World War were misplaced as there was no accepted design, nor guarantee that components could be sourced quickly.  

Metals were desperately needed for the effort to defeat the Nazis some 80 years ago.

In December 1939 the Ministry of Supply introduced the National Salvage Scheme, asking members of the public to collect metal in all shapes and forms to help build ships, planes, tanks, bombs and gun parts.

Volunteer salvaging squads gathered metal, and some used for decoration was even taken from civic spaces. 

Under tough new powers, people who refuse to go into quarantine face being detained or slapped with a fine of up to £1,000. 

Police are able to use ‘reasonable force’ to constrain those who could infect others.  

Mr Hancock appeared to concede yesterday that the NHS will need to significantly boost the number of staff qualified to use ventilators. 

Responding to suggestions that the health service will not have enough people to operate the machines, he replied ‘we’ve got the number of doctors that we have’. 

But he added: ‘We want to bring people who are recently retired back into service and for instance release doctors from some other duties and get them back into the health service, but also the clinical need that people have when they’re suffering from coronavirus are very specific. 

‘It’s about ventilation, because it’s a respiratory disease. So we will be stopping some other activity and asking doctors who normally do other things to retrain, to be able to, for instance, use the ventilator.’ 

Ron Daniels, an intensive care consultant, told Sky News today that NHS staff must be appropriately protected against the disease so they can continue to help those who are sick. 

He said: ‘We talk about doubling intensive care beds but if an operating theatre is an intensive care bed those ventilators are not robust enough to cope with the most severely ill. 

‘This is about staff. It is about ventilators, but just as importantly, if not more so it is about supply chain for personal protective equipment because health professionals, they are stepping up to the mark, but they are worried.’ 

Mr Hancock said yesterday that ‘it is not possible to produce too many’ ventilators as he promised the government will buy all those which are made.  

He told Sophy Ridge on Sky News: ‘We start with around 5,000 ventilators, we think we need many times more than that and we are saying if you produce a ventilator then we will buy it. No number is too high.

‘They are relatively complicated pieces of kit, I couldn’t make one, but they’re not so complicated that the advanced manufacturing that this country is so good at now can’t be able to turn its production lines over to.

‘We’ve been talking to a whole host of companies about it and the Prime Minister is hosting a conference call today with them to say very clearly to the nation’s manufacturers ventilators are the thing that we are going to need and frankly right across the world, the demand for them is incredibly high so it is not possible to produce too many.

‘So anybody who can should turn production and their engineering minds over to the production of ventilators.’