The Health, Labor and Welfare Ministry said it will speed up the approval process for the manufacture and sale of ventilators in preparation for an increase in the number of patients in serious condition due to the spread of new coronavirus infections.
The ministry plans to speed up production by setting up consultation services for automobile and electronics manufactures and prioritizing reviews for them when they cooperate in production.
A ventilator is a mechanical device that pushes oxygen into the lungs of a patient who has difficulty breathing due to pneumonia.
To increase production, the ministry envisions a cooperative system in which automobile manufactures and other firms take over part of the assembly process for medical equipment makers.
The ministry will give priority to procedures that allow automobile manufacturers to assemble products at their plants and speed up the process of checking assembly processes in their factories. With this support, the review, which usually takes about three months, can be completed in a few days.
The government has secured about 8,000 ventilators so far, but plans to secure a total of 15,000 by asking manufacturers to increase production. In other countries, patients are dying due to a lack of equipment.
Read more from The Japan News at https://japannews.yomiuri.co.jp/
