Australia’s ventilator stockpile up by 3000

The number of ventilators in Australia has surged, with thousands of the machines being manufactured onshore.

Nurse Kristina holds a ventilator at Melbourne's Casey Hospital. Picture: Jake Nowakowski

The number of intensive care ventilators in Australia has surged, with thousands of the machines being manufactured onshore and delivered to the federal ­government.

Staff at medical devices company ResMed have worked overtime during the past month to provide more than 3000 ventilators, which keep patients alive when they can no longer breathe on their own.

There were an estimated 2023 intensive care beds in hospitals across the country that were fitted with ventilators when the crisis began. The federal government has set a target of having 7500 ventilators available for use.

ResMed has been contracted to supply 5500.

The extra 3260 ventilators that have now been supplied will be held by the federal government in the COVID-19 national stockpile to be distributed when hospitals require them.

Industry, Science and Technology Minister Karen Andrews said the delivery from ResMed followed extensive work to secure onshore production.

“The government has been working hard to secure supply and increase the domestic manufacture of ventilators,” Ms Andrews said. “ResMed is a wonderful Aussie manufacturer that has stepped up in these unprecedented times to ramp up its production.

“ResMed is a terrific example of the incredible manufacturing ­capacity that Australia has right here at home and shows how ­Aussie ingenuity can save lives.”

Ventilators help a patient breathe by assisting the lungs to inhale and exhale air. A tube ­attached to the ventilator is inserted into a patient’s mouth or nose and fed down the windpipe, or ­alternatively inserted through a surgically made hole in the neck.

Oxygen-rich air is fed into the lungs and carbon dioxide is ­removed.

There are currently 170 ­patients being treated for COVID-19 in Australian hospitals. Forty-nine are in intensive care, with 32 requiring ventilators.

Health Minister Greg Hunt said as well as an additional 2500 ventilators to be supplied by ResMed in coming weeks, there were a further 2000 being made by another Australian company, Grey Innovation, together with a consortium of local manufacturers and engineering firms.

A medical mannequin wearing a ventilator. Picture: Getty Images

“These additional ventilators will help to ensure we have sufficient supplies to meet the ­increased demand we expect in coming months,” Mr Hunt said.

“Our national aim over the next few months is simple — suppress the virus, increase our testing and tracing, and slowly ease the ­restrictions.”

Hospitals have already boosted their number of intensive care beds with ventilators attached by repurposing anaesthetic and transport ventilators.

NSW Health said it had doubled its number of intensive care beds, with “efforts now under way to double it again”.

NSW has also placed its own ­orders for ventilators.

Victoria has placed an urgent order for 2000 extra ventilators to boost its current supply of 1000. Queensland, which has 20 coronavirus patients in hospitals and seven of those on ventilators, has 400 ICU-standard ventilators and a further 450 anaesthetic ventilators that could be used if needed.

Queensland’s newer hospitals also have piped oxygen, which makes converting other equipment into ventilators possible.

Queensland Health director-general John Wakefield said the state had 800 intensive care beds in the public and private sector, a figure that could be increased by 400 if necessary.