WEDNESDAY, 8 APRIL, 2020

Immediate release

COVID-19:NHS Tayside staff convert medical equipment into ventilators

Staff in the medical physics department have been carrying out vital work to convert medical equipment into ventilators.

Patients with coronavirus often have difficulty breathing and may require assistance to help them breathe more easily. For some patients, all they may require is oxygen support but others who are more critically unwell may require ventilators to support their breathing function.

A vital part of NHS Tayside’s response to COVID-19 has been an increase in the capacity of intensive care and in high dependency units so that more specialist support can be delivered to the most critically ill patients.

The medical physics team has a crucial role in maintaining vital medical equipment used within hospitals right across Tayside, supporting our frontline staff to deliver specialist care.

They have been converting complex anaesthetic machines which would normally be used in hospital theatres, to be used as ventilators. These specialist items of equipment will be used to treat the most seriously ill patients providing critical care to the people of Tayside.

The repurposed machines have now been now approved for use and will be deployed into the newly-created intensive care areas at the hospital.

NHS Tayside’s Head of Medical Physics, Professor David Sutton said, “NHS Tayside medical physics staff have been working very hard over the last couple of weeks and, to date, repurposed 26 anaesthetic machines to enable them to function as ventilators.  

“With these machines now acting as ventilators it means that we can provide additional critical specialist intensive care for COVID patients, as and when the need arises.

“I would like to thank the medical physics team, a group of staff who are often unseen by our patients and the public, for their dedication and hard work which is making such a difference at this time.”

Additional information

NHS Tayside is moving into the next phase of its COVID-19 response by increasing critical care and intensive care capacity at its specialist COVID-19 acute facility at Ninewells Hospital in Dundee.

This includes the transfer of intensive care beds, ventilator equipment and specialist staff from Perth Royal Infirmary to Ninewells COVID-19 Intensive Care Unit which has been established in the re-purposed and redesigned Theatre Admission Suite.

Click here for further information

Contact:

Anna Michie

NHS Tayside Communications

(01382) 424138