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Spotted: With a worldwide shortage of ventilators hitting healthcare supplies everywhere, the need for new breathing devices has become paramount in the fight against the coronavirus. 

The Continuous Positive Airway Pressure (CPAP) devices are already in use in some of the worst-affected areas, such as Italy and China, but now clinicians from University College London Hospital (UCLH) and Mercedes F1 have worked with engineers at UCL to develop the aids for the NHS. The devices work by delivering oxygen to the lungs without the need for a ventilator, which should help to get coronavirus patients out of intensive care.

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This is in response to the formation of the “VentilatorChallengeUK,” which includes companies such as Airbus, BAE Systems, Ford, Rolls-Royce and Siemens, who are promising to work together to invent more ventilators rapidly.

Forty CPAPs have already been delivered to ULCH and three other hospitals in London for trial. Mercedes-AMG-HPP is claiming that they could produce up to 1000 of the devices every day if the trials work. The trials will take place quickly and the machines could be in production within a week. The MHRA (Medicines and Healthcare products Regulatory Agency) has given the use of the devices the go-ahead already. 

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