Recommendation 15

However, it is important to remember that the challenge did not take place under normal circumstances. Ventilator Challenge UK, the consortium of businesses that worked together to produce the Penlon ES02 ventilators, described the process as “working against a backdrop of life or death urgency”.24 The Cabinet Office acknowledged that the scale and urgency of the task meant that designers and manufacturers involved in the challenge came together “in the most collaborative way” it had ever seen and that the Cabinet Office team were working “12 hour days, seven days a week for 14 weeks.”25 The Cabinet Office also explained that the focus of the programme was maintaining public health and that there was therefore a low emphasis on cost. This meant that it was able to fund multiple devices until it became clear whether or not the ventilator would be needed to meet demand.26