So the UK g0vernment needs tens of thousands of ventilators so the obvious solution is to turn to er a vacuum cleaner company??? That’s what the UK Government think anyway with their plan to get Dyson to make 10,000 ventilators.
Of course in times of crisis, we need creative solutions, but where this story gets weird is the UK Government refused several offers from Ventilator manufacturers and suppliers. From the Guardian:
Several small suppliers of ventilators have said the government has not responded to their offers to make more.
The head of Direct Access, Steven Mifsud, told the Nantwich News he had sourced 5,000 ventilators and millions of face masks and personal protective equipment through its United Arab Emirates partners. He registered the supply on the “ventilator challenge” page of the Department for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy website, but after five days he had heard nothing and the supplies went elsewhere.
He is quoted saying the only communication he had from the Department of Health was a “thank you” and “you are in our system”.
“Time is a luxury that we as a nation do not have,” Mifsud said. “This virus does not wait for anyone and every second costs lives. I am incredibly frustrated with the British government and the current mañana attitude.”
He said his partners in the UAE said they were getting responses from other countries within hours.
Here is Andrew Raynor of MEC Medical, a medical parts manufacturer being interviewed on BBC Newsnight:
“The government should have given funding to existing ventilator manufacturers, and existing companies like us.”
Andrew Raynor of MEC Medical, a medical parts manufacturer, says “nothing” happened when he contacted the govt offering to make #Covid19 ventilators#Newsnight pic.twitter.com/n79KVpENbW
— BBC Newsnight (@BBCNewsnight) March 25, 2020
James Dyson was a big supporter of Brexit and there are accusations of favouritism by the UK Government.
And just to add to the mix, Gtech is a small British vacuum cleaner company that has come up with a solution that looks simpler to make and likely cheaper, their solution does not even require electric, unlike the Dyson option.
To be fair Dyson does make very nice (if expensive) products. I just bought one of their cordless vacuum cleaners last week, and very nice it is too. But to ignore existing ventilator companies who could ramp up production and instead go for a new design by a company with no experience in this market seems a very reckless bet.
Photo by kathleenport is licensed under CC BY-NC-SA
I help to manage Slugger by taking care of the site as well as running our live events. My background is in business, marketing and IT. My politics tend towards middle-of-the-road pragmatism, I am not a member of any political party. Oddly for a member of the Slugger team, I am not that interested in daily politics, preferring to write about big ideas in society. When not stuck in front of a screen, I am a parkrun Run Director.