Furious UK supplier condemns government’s slowness to act
The Tory government has ignored an offer of 5,000 medical ventilators – ready and approved – from a UK supplier to place an order for 10,000 medical ventilators of an untested design from vacuum cleaner manufacturer Dyson.
Dyson ‘hopes’ to build the ‘new type of ventilator’ at its Wiltshire base, but will be relying on a ‘rush’ programme of testing and approval – and then will need at least a couple of weeks to scale up from prototype to full production, according to the BBC News website.
However, the government lost an offered 5,000 ventilators – of existing and approved design – because of its slowness to respond to an offer from a Cheshire-based firm who had them ready to deliver.
Nantwich firm Direct Access contacted the government over a week ago with the offer of 5,000 UAE-built machines and millions of coronavirus testing kits, but received only an automated response – and the stocks were snapped up by other countries.
Direct Access’s experience was far from unique. Andrew Raynor of medical manufacturer MEC Medical said he saw no response when he contacted the government with an offer:
Health Secretary Matt Hancock said earlier this month that the government would take any ventilators it was offered:
Hancock claimed at the time that he had been talking to the UK’s top engineering companies about building ventilators, but it emerged that the government had only just organised a conference call with Boris Johnson for the following weekend, after almost two months of dithering.
SKWAWKBOX view:
More Tory dithering has cost the UK 5,000 ventilators it could have had within a very short time – but hey, Dyson is designing something completely new and not yet tried or tested, so that’s ok.
All too typically, the Dyson order is receiving lengthy coverage from the BBC and other Establishment media – but not the fact that Johnson’s and Hancock’s meandering let 5,000 slip through their fingers.
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