70 GTMA suppliers join Medical Cluster to help the battle against Covid-19

 

 

Call for help is answered by supplier base

Seventy GTMA suppliers have stepped forward to help the UK’s effort to manu- facture ventilators for the coronavirus pandemic.

Several are now actively involved in a con- sortium based around the expertise in the UK-based Formula 1 engineering teams set up to design and develop ventilators to help patients’ breath during the Covid-19 contagion.

The 70 have joined a GTMA Medical Cluster formed in response to an approach for help from the University College London (UCL) which formed a consortium based around the F1 teams.

Its aim is to raise the UK capability/capacity to produce ventilators from the hundreds, woefully short of the government’s estimated NHS requirement of 30,000.

Professor Tim Baker at the UCL contacted GTMA on March 17.

First GTMA obtained the specification of the UCL’s requirements and, from the outset, recognised the challenge faced by the requirement to produce at such a scale.

Clear timelines

The timelines were clear and then began a detailed survey of GTMA suppliers to align them under the Medical Cluster. This exercise highlighted who could do what and when, and this was taken by UCL so it had a ‘pick-list’ source for services and products.

What started with 40 suppliers had grown to 70 by the point when the devices gained approval for manufacture.

During the first week of procurement several GTMA member companies were contacted to quote for work and are now working in the manufacturing supply chain.