Senior British doctors warn that 250 ventilators the UK bought from China risk causing 'significant patient harm, including death,' if they are used in hospitals.
Like many other countries, the U.K. was scrambling to make up the shortfall in its ventilator capacity by the middle of March.
On April 4, the British government announced a major step toward that goal after 300 ventilators from China arrived at MoD Donnington, a military base in England. According to listings on Made-in-China.com, which connects global buyers with Chinese manufacturers, the ventilator is a relatively cheap machine, costing $1,500 to $3,000.
But because of the ventilators' problems, the British doctors said, they would be usable only with careful and time-consuming supervision by senior specialists. They warned that its unreliable and unfamiliar settings were"highly likely to cause serious harm" when used by the army of nonspecialist doctors and nurses who have been conscripted into ICUs to fight the virus.
But Dr. Ron Daniels, a senior ICU doctor in another NHS region covering Birmingham, said his team was sent a small number of the same model and shared some of the same concerns. He believes the hasty purchase was the result of the U.K. government's seeking a quick public relations win.
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