‘‘I got this strange text from Minister [David] Parker.
‘‘He sent me a photo of the Italian [ventilator] hood ... I thought it was a bit of a scam.’’
It was not.
Mr Hopkins — the former chief executive of Scott Tech — was asked by Mr Parker if he could help get ventilator hoods into New Zealand.
‘‘[He] was keen to see if I could help him find some way to get them either into New Zealand or manufacture them here.’’
Mr Hopkins understood the Government had put in an order for some ventilator hoods but ‘‘had not been able to get hold of them’’.
Dunedin Hospital ICU clinical director Dr Craig Carr had told Mr Parker about the success of the ventilator hoods in treating Covid-19 patients in Europe — as well as the lack of the products in New Zealand.
‘‘It helps them breathe ... meaning they don’t have to go into full ventilation,’’ Mr Hopkins said.
‘‘For the ventilator [patients] have to be sedated and have a tube stuck down their throat — whereas these things enable them to be treated prior and hopefully eliminating that and shortening their stay in hospital.’’
A few days after first talking to the minister about the project, Mr Hopkins spoke to Otago Polytechnic about using its facilities and rounded up a team of ex-Scott Tech staff and others in related fields who were keen to have a go at producing ventilator hoods here.
Funding through some philanthropists had already been organised by the minister.
‘‘Early design and development was completed within the first weeks of Level 4 lockdown and a prototype of predominantly 3-D printed parts was developed and built,’’ Mr Hopkins said.
The funding then allowed the team to bring the venture to life with the ability to manufacture tools for production, he said.
A company called SouthMED Ltd was formed and they began developing 200 ventilators.
A final product was now close to being production-ready, Mr Hopkins said.
‘‘It has been an amazing story of individual professionals in our community coming together to get the job done quickly by combining their unique skills, tools, knowledge and networks.’’
The team that had pulled it together included clinicians Dr Carr and Dr Matthew Leaper, anaesthetic technician Bill Clarke, engineers Mark Seaton and Richard Aimers, product designers Andrew Wallace and William Early, scientist Dr Barbara Webster and businessman Roger Farley.
The team was able to use Otago Polytechnic’s rapid-prototyping facilities to work on product concepts and prototypes.
