Ventilators from vet clinics could be used to raise ICU capacity
And Australian ICUs could also nearly triple bed capacity if needed, say researchers
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