Philips increases production of critical medical equipment
Health technology provider Royal Philips (Philips) has announced that it is increasing the production of certain critical care products and solutions to help diagnose and treat Covid-19 patients
As per the needs of the global healthcare industry, Philips is ramping up the production of hospital ventilators, planning to double production within the next eight weeks and achieve a four-fold increase by the third quarter of 2020.
The company, which has final assembly sites in North America, Europe and Asia, with a global network of certified materials and component suppliers, is also increasing the production of patient vital signs monitors and medical consumables for non-invasive and invasive ventilation to treat a broad range of respiratory conditions.
Philips’ efforts to increase the production of its goods includes hiring additional employees, adding manufacturing lines and increasing the number of shifts to 24/7.
In addition to this, Philips is also calling on governments to facilitate enhanced access to critical materials and components by not imposing restrictions such as export controls and tariffs, and to provide help to accelerate logistics, as well as exceptions for critical suppliers from lockdown measures. These measures align with the recent call to action made by the International Chamber of Commerce and World Health Organization.
“In line with Philips’ mission to improve people’s lives, we want to help as many healthcare providers as possible to deal with the growing numbers of critical Covid-19 patients,” said Frans van Houten, CEO of Royal Philips. “There is an unprecedented global demand for medical equipment to help diagnose and treat patients with Covid-19. We are working around the clock to double our hospital ventilator production within the next eight weeks and we are aiming for a four-fold increase by the third quarter.”
Houten continued: “We are actively engaging with the medical technology industry, government, the World Health Organization and other health authorities to safeguard the production expansion of materials, components and final products, as well as their shipment between countries. We are calling on all these parties to help us in our endeavor to save lives by accelerating deliveries. We believe in fair allocation of scarce medical equipment to those that need it the most while we are ramping up to supply other regions in the coming months.”