University ventilator transferred to RIE intensive care ward
Edinburgh Napier has stepped in to help combat a national shortage of medical ventilators needed to treat coronavirus.
A ventilator normally used within the Simulation and Clinical Skills Centre at Sighthill has been transferred to the intensive care ward at the Royal Infirmary of Edinburgh to play a frontline role in the current public health emergency.
As the crisis continues, the Scottish Government has been seeking to tap into universities' training facilities, packages and staffing to support the upskilling of staff.
Michelle O'Reilly, the University's academic lead, Simulation and Clinical Skills, listed equipment which may be of use, and was subsequently contacted by an RIE charge nurse.
Property & Facilities staff helped load the ventilator into a van and secure it, and it has now been safely delivered to the hospital.
Michelle said: “The ventilator - christened Wall-e by the team at Sighthill – is normally used for training purposes for advanced practice and critical care simulations, and was previously used to train a lot of the newly-qualified intensive care nurses in the SCSC.
“After checks to ensure Wall-e is in good working order, it will be crucial in the fight against COVID-19. The SCSC are more than happy to help out their former colleagues at such a time.”