The number of ventilators in Australian ICUs could be more than doubled to cope with an expected surge in critically ill patients with COVID-19, a national survey suggests.

This includes 179 human-model ventilators available in the veterinary setting that could readily be redeployed to hospitals, the researchers say.

The findings, published preprint in the Medical Journal of Australia, suggest that ICUs could almost triple their bed capacity to manage a likely influx of patients, although it would be more of a challenge to find enough appropriately trained nurses.

Researchers, led by intensivist Dr Ed Litton, from the Fiona Stanley Hospital in Perth, surveyed all 191 ICUs across the country to determine both their baseline bed capacity and their ability to respond to predicted increased demand.