In the current Covid epidemic, it has been reported that it takes nine members of staff to prone each ventilated patient, several times a day in the critical care units. Even with health and safety adherence this must be exhausting. Can a policy be developed that has power to initiate quickly, innovative research and development responses to key issues like this one? Imagine the sense of mental support health trust workers would feel if they knew, through the media channels that the Government had seen the problem and was taking the time to seek a mechanical solution? And maybe they would sense a modicum of mental relief knowing that the future would entail less physical ‚’wear and tear‚’ Furthermore and relevant, would be the reduction of the physical demand not only per staff member, but also, in the number of staff that would be used for the one intervention, repeated several times and for several patients per day. A solution to this particular ‚’staff heavy‚’ action could mean that more ventilated patients could be cared for by the same number of trained staff, a win win situation. British engineers I feel are more than capable of coming up with solutions but it requires leadership from the Government to initiate the request for a solution. This action I know has already been set in motion several times throughout the pandemic, the challenge to the Government and policy making is to make sure this valuable opportunity is not lost and is built upon.
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