Althea is urging UK hospitals with disused or broken ventilation equipment to contact them immediately as part of its efforts to help with the COVID-19 response.
The company is seeking all ventilation equipment, but primarily ICU ventilators, BIPAP machines, transport ventilators, CPAP machines and NIV ventilators.
It will then refurbish the much-needed life-saving equipment and get it back into NHS circulation so it can be used operationally.
The plea comes as it is estimated that as many as 20,000 extra ventilators could be required to treat infected patients as more people are hospitalised due to coronavirus.
David Rolfe, chief executive at Althea, said: “There is a countrywide worry that there may not be enough ventilators to sustain critical patients who need breathing assistance which is why we are appealing to trusts in the country to contact us immediately if they have broken or disused equipment.
“We will review every response that we receive to see if we could make it work for the current situation.
“Althea will arrange for it to be collected and our specialised team will start work to get the systems back into operation so they can save lives.
“By working together we can ensure there are more ventilators in hospitals and more people will gain access to these equipment as they are treated for COVID-19.”
The programme will support the Government’s Ventilator Challenge UK consortium, which has been set up to scale up production of much-needed equipment.
