German army donates 60 ventilators as UK scrambles for equipment

Germany’s army is donating 60 mobile ventilators to the UK following a call for help as the NHS races to get hold of enough life-saving equipment in the runup to the expected peak of the UK’s Covid-19 pandemic in mid-April.

Officials have been racing to obtain ventilators internationally because UK manufacturers have not been able to produce enough in time.

A spokesperson for the German defence ministry confirmed to the Guardian a report in Der Spiegel, according to which the Bundeswehr would send 60 pieces of the life-saving equipment as soon as possible.

Highlighting the urgency of the British situation, the German ministry said it would not invoice the UK for the ventilators, which are made by two specialist German manufacturers, Dräger and Weinmann.

At present the NHS has about 10,000 ventilators available, but Matt Hancock, the health secretary, has said that 18,000 are needed to ensure there will be ample capacity in seven to 10 days, when it is believed case numbers will peak.

More than 480 ventilators are understood to have arrived in the UK from overseas since March. They have been bought or donated from China, which has supplied 300, the US, Germany, Sweden and Taiwan.

Donald Trump said this week that the UK had been in touch to chase up the delivery of 200 ventilators already ordered from US companies, saying, “They need them desperately.”

NHS officials say another 1,500 ventilators are on order and due to arrive in the next fortnight, and several thousand more are due to come from British manufacturers in the weeks after that.

That would still leave the NHS below Hancock’s 18,000 target, but the Department of Health insists that enough ventilators will be available to deal with the peak of coronavirus cases, because the strategy had been to remain ahead of patient demand.

Ventilators are critical in keeping the most severely ill coronavirus patients alive. The UK had only 5,000 of the medical devices available in the middle of March, when the severity of the disease became clear.

Ministers called on the private sector to make ventilators as part of the Ventilator Challenge UK initiative, but despite a positive response from a string of British companies, it has taken time to make devices, which also need regulatory approval before they can be used.

Stefan Dräger recently said his company had doubled its production volume in February this year and was under pressure to quadruple it as requests from countries around the world came pouring in. Dräger, 57, told Der Spiegel that he expected that “the challenge [of the Covid-19 pandemic] in England will be greater than in Spain”, because of an unequal distribution of intensive care beds.

British firms such as Dyson, Babcock, a defence contractor, and Cambridge-based Sagentia have each been asked to provide 10,000 newly designed models. Aircraft manufacturer Airbus has been working with an existing supplier, Penlon, to help increase its production.

Prior to these efforts by established British manufacturers, Penlon and Smiths Group were making around 50 to 60 ventilators a week.