From stewartb:

The Scottish Government announced today that NHS Scotland’s staff have helped boost the stock of ventilators that are so crucial for the care of those suffering from COVID-19. This has been achieved by repurposing more than 200 anaesthetic machines. These machines, normally used in operating theatres outwith intensive care units (ICU), will supplement the stock of specialised ICU ventilators.

Source: https://www.gov.scot/news/anaesthetic-machines-boost-ventilator-capacity/

Importantly, this use of repurposed machines increases ICU bed availability to more than 500. It is also reported that more ventilators for NHS Scotland have been ordered from a range of manufacturers and these will arrive over the coming weeks.

Consultant Intensive Care Anaesthetist and Scottish Critical Care Clinical Lead Dr Rory Mackenzie reports: “Over the last month ICU clinicians across Scotland have been fully committed to delivering detailed plans to increase the number of ventilator beds to meet the anticipated demand due to COVID-19. These plans include expanding into new spaces not normally used for critical care and repurposing anaesthetic machine ventilators, normally used in the operating theatre environment, to supplement specialised ICU ventilators.”

(Most modern anaesthetic machines have ventilators within them, and as a result most can be used with or without some modification to ventilate patients requiring intensive care.)

This repurposing of equipment has gone on alongside additional training for staff with previous ICU experience and others released from elective care programmes.

The Scottish Government’s Senior Medical Advisor and Consultant Intensive Care Anaesthetist Dr John Colvin said: “From working collaboratively with clinical and technical staff across NHS Scotland, we are now confident that we are able to provide more than three times the normal number of ICU beds, and are on course to quadruple Intensive Care Capacity.”

To be ‘fair’ to BBC News online, at the end of a long article on its ‘Scotland’ page today it finally got to this same topic in the last paragraph. It tells us: ‘NHS boards have been working to repurpose 200 operating theatre anaesthetic machines for use as ventilators to “bridge any gap” in provision ahead of … new ventilators arriving.’