Cash from the foreign aid budget is being used to deal with Britain’s shortage of ventilators needed to treat coronavirus.
The Department for International Development (Dfid) has set aside money to source technology used in developing nations that could be easily built by non-specialist manufacturers in Britain.
An organisation called Frontier Technology, working with Dfid and University College London, has put out a call for designs for rapidly manufactured ventilation systems (RMVS) used in developing countries.
They are looking for existing, proven technology that can be quickly adapted to be built in the UK. The designs will be adapted for manufacture by a team at UCL through the university’s institute for healthcare engineering and used in NHS intensive care units.
The government is desperate to