Leeds hospitals and university collaborate to produce quick-fix ventilator to treat coronavirus

The team says there are thousands of so-called Nippy3+ devices around the NHS, with around 100 in Leeds alone. They are currently being phased out of service.

Engineers at University College London and Mercedes announced last week that they had successfully engineered a continuous positive airway pressure (CPAP) device that had widely been used in China.

The Leeds team says their modifications of the Nippy 3+ machine will complement this move and the specifications are being made widely available.

They said that the modification is straightforward and involves changes to the device’s settings and reconfiguring the supply of oxygen so it flows to the face mask worn by the patient.

The machine operates in CPAP mode, which means the pressure inside the mask is slightly raised, keeping the patient’s airway open and making it easier for them to breathe.

It provides enriched oxygen of between 40% to 60% and, because it is a modification to an existing device, it does not have to go through a full regulatory approval process.

The project is an interdisciplinary collaboration between clinical staff, engineers and physicists at Leeds Teaching Hospitals Trust (LTHT) and academics and technologists at the University of Leeds.

The initial modification, from an idea in the medical physics department at LTHT was developed in four days.

The medical physics team then wanted to reconfigure it further, to achieve more efficient use of the hospital oxygen supplies. The clinical team, with the engineers, decided that the patient’s mask would receive air from the device and oxygen directly from the hospital’s supply system, the university said.

Dr David Brettle, head of the medical physics team at LTHT and honorary professor at the University of Salford, said: “We know there could be pressure on the NHS for more ventilators during the current coronavirus outbreak and this was a way of coming up with a potential solution.

“Scientists and clinicians working with academics and technicians have made it happen.”

Dr Pete Culmer, associate professor in the School of Mechanical Engineering at Leeds and a member of the team, added: “Previously we had been looking at having to fit each machine with seven new components – and that would have required a system to manufacture those new components.

“Instead, the solution we eventually arrived at is much simpler. You have to change some of the settings, filters and the way oxygen reaches the patient. It is now a fix that hospital teams can undertake themselves using equipment which is readily available.”

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