London Daily

Focus on the big picture.
Thursday, Sep 18, 2025

Thousands of ventilators pulled as electrical faults put UK patients’ lives at risk

Thousands of ventilators pulled as electrical faults put UK patients’ lives at risk

Electrical problem triggers global safety alert on 2,000 Philips machines

Two thousand ventilators being used in UK hospitals are at risk of suddenly shutting down due to electrical faults that have led to a global safety alert.

Hospitals have been ordered to source replacement ventilators after Philips Respironics said its breathing support devices could suddenly stop working, in some cases without activating a warning alarm.

The Medicines and Healthcare products Regulatory Agency (MHRA) said the problem related to “a number of electrical faults in the devices, which can result in an unexpected shutdown, leading to loss of ventilation”.

It said there had been five reported cases of shutdowns in the UK so far, none of which involved patient harm. Globally, there have been 389 reports of failures, including one where the patient died and four where they were seriously injured. In six of the total cases, the warning alarm didn’t sound.

Philips Respironics is one of several manufacturers that increased production of ventilators during the pandemic. The MHRA brought in a fast approval process for ventilators and other medical devices in response to Covid-19.

The affected machines include invasive and non-invasive ventilators used to support patients in critical care and high-dependency units.

The MHRA said the root cause of the problem was not yet known and remained under investigation, but that Philips Respironics currently had “no permanent solution” to correct it.

The ventilators were ‘very widely used in critical care units’ for people with lung disease and Covid-19, said a consultant in intensive care.


The Dutch medical equipment company said it was not advising customers to remove affected devices because of the “extremely low incidence” of problems, and instead recommends steps to lower the risks, such as connecting ventilators to a remote alarm system in case the primary alarm fails.

But the MHRA has ordered hospitals and healthcare providers to source alternative ventilators and train staff to use them, and said affected devices should be removed from use by the end of May. In the meantime, doctors must increase monitoring of patients and ensure a backup ventilator is always available.

The regulator said hospitals would still be able to use the affected ventilators if there was a “risk of severe patient harm due to the lack of availability” but that a “thorough risk assessment must be completed and additional monitoring must be used”.

“If unnoticed by healthcare professionals, ventilation failure can have a severe health impact on patients,” it said. “This can include hypoxia, which can result in long-term cognitive impairment to the patient. There is also a risk of death if a patient is without ventilation for a sustained period of time.”

The safety alert comes after a string of other problems involving Philips Respironics ventilators. In January, an issue that could lead to unexpected device shutdown was reported in the US. Philips said it related to a “production issue” that involved an expired adhesive and affected only a particular batch.

Shutdowns were also reported in September 2020, when a recall was issued by the MHRA, which warned that about 300 Philips ventilators in the UK were at risk of suddenly stopping working. The company said that issue related “specifically to V60 ventilators with a certain printed circuit board assembly” and could be corrected through a maintenance schedule.

In June 2021, a separate alert was issued due to the degradation of foam used in some ventilators and sleep apnoea machines, which could lead to users inhaling cancer-causing chemicals. The latest safety alert relates to V60, V60 Plus and V680 Philips ventilators and affects about 105,000 devices globally, and 2,000 in the UK, Philips said. The Department of Health has made arrangements to supply replacement ventilators to hospitals that need them.

Dr Ben Messer, a consultant in intensive care medicine at Newcastle Hospitals NHS Foundation Trust and spokesman for the British Thoracic Society, said the recall was “significant” because the devices were “very widely used in critical care units” for people with lung disease and Covid-19, particularly those who needed lots of oxygen or were being weaned off more intensive support.

“It’s frustrating because they are outstanding machines,” he said. He added that trust in Philips would be dented unless the cause of the problem could be identified and corrected. “If they say, ‘No, we’re not going to fix this problem’, it’s hard to imagine that will paint Philips in a very positive light.”

Helen Hughes, chief executive of the Patient Safety Learning charity, said there was a “significant patient safety concern” that some Philips devices could remain in use until replacements were sourced.

Philips Respironics said safety was its “number one priority” and apologised to “any patient or healthcare provider who may have experienced any concern” as a result of the safety notice. It has set up a team to deal with the reported ventilator shutdowns.

A spokesperson said: “The V60 ventilator has been in service for almost 10 years now with a high reliability record. Every complaint is one complaint too many, and if there is a reported issue, then we will take each individual complaint seriously, address that transparently, and report that to the relevant competent authorities.”

Newsletter

Related Articles

0:00
0:00
Close
Massive Strikes in France Pressure Macron and New PM on Austerity Proposals
Trump Seeks Supreme Court Permission to Remove Fed Governor Lisa Cook
Hillary Clinton’s Reckless Rhetoric Fuels Division After Charlie Kirk’s Assassination
NASDAQ Rises to Record as Intel Soars More Than 20%, Nvidia Gains 3%
Nvidia’s $5 Billion Bet on Intel Reshapes AI Hardware Landscape
Trump and Starmer Clash Over UK Recognition of Palestinian State Amid State Visit
Trump’s Quip on Biden and Google Lawsuit Revives Debate Over Antitrust Legacy
Macron and his wife to provide 'scientific photographic evidence' that she is a real woman
US Tech Giants Pledge Billions to UK AI Infrastructure Following Starmer's Call
Saudi Arabia cracks down on music ‘lounges’ after conservative backlash
DeepMind and OpenAI Achieve Gold at ‘Coding Olympics’ in AI Milestone
SEC Allows Public Companies to Block Investors from Class-Action Lawsuits
Saudi Arabia Signs ‘Strategic Mutual Defence’ Pact with Pakistan, Marking First Arab State to Gain Indirect Access to Nuclear Strike Capabilities in the Region
Federal Reserve Cuts Rates by Quarter Point and Signals More to Come
Effective and Impressive Generation Z Protest: Images from the Riots in Nepal
European manufacturers against ban on polluting cars: "The industry may collapse"
Sam Altman sells the 'Wedding Estate' in Hawaii for 49 million dollars
Trump: Cancel quarterly company reports and settle for reporting once every six months
Turkish car manufacturer Togg Enters German Market with 5-Star Electric Sedan and SUV to Challenge European EV Brands
US Launches New Pilot Program to Accelerate eVTOL Air Taxi Deployment
Christian Brueckner Released from German Prison after Serving Unrelated Sentence
World’s Longest Direct Flight China Eastern to Launch 29-Hour Shanghai–Buenos Aires Direct Flight via Auckland in December
New OpenAI Study Finds Majority of ChatGPT Use Is Personal, Not Professional
Hong Kong Industry Group Calls for HK$20 Billion Support Fund to Ease Property Market Stress
Joe Biden’s Post-Presidency Speaking Fees Face Weak Demand amid Corporate Reluctance
Charlie Kirk's murder will break the left's hateful cancel tactics
Kash Patel erupts at ‘buffoon’ Sen. Adam Schiff over Russiagate: ‘You are the biggest fraud’
Homeland Security says Emmy speech ‘fanning the flames of hatred’ after Einbinder’s ‘F— ICE’ remark
Charlie Kirk’s Alleged Assassin Tyler Robinson Faces Death Penalty as Charges Formally Announced
Actor, director, environmentalist Robert Redford dies at 89
The conservative right spreads westward: a huge achievement for 'Alternative for Germany' in local elections
JD Vance Says There Is “No Unity” with Those Who Celebrate Charlie Kirk’s Killing, and he is right!
Trump sues the 'New York Times' for an astronomical sum of 15 billion dollars
Florida Hospital Welcomes Its Largest-Ever Baby: Annan, Nearly Fourteen Pounds at Birth
U.S. and Britain Poised to Finalize Over $10 Billion in High-Tech, Nuclear and Defense Deals During Trump State Visit
China Finds Nvidia Violated Antitrust Laws in Mellanox Deal, Deepens Trade Tensions with US
US Air Force Begins Modifications on Qatar-Donated Jet Amid Plans to Use It as Air Force One
Pope Leo Warns of Societal Crisis Over Mega-CEO Pay, Citing Tesla’s Proposed Trillion-Dollar Package
Poland Green-Lights NATO Deployment in Response to Major Russian Drone Incursion
Elon Musk Retakes Lead as World’s Richest After Brief Ellison Surge
U.S. and China Agree on Framework to Shift TikTok to American Ownership
London Daily Podcast: London Massive Pro Democracy Rally, Musk Support, UK Economic Data and Premier League Results Mark Eventful Weekend
This Week in AI: Meta’s Superintelligence Push, xAI’s Ten Billion-Dollar Raise, Genesis AI’s Robotics Ambitions, Microsoft Restructuring, Amazon’s Million-Robot Milestone, and Google’s AlphaGenome Update
Le Pen Tightens the Pressure on Macron as France Edges Toward Political Breakdown
Musk calls for new UK government at huge pro-democracy rally in London, but Britons have been brainwashed to obey instead of fighting for their human rights
Elon Musk responds to post calling for the murder of Erika Kirk, widow of Charlie Kirk: 'Either we fight back or they will kill us'
Czech Republic signs €1.34 billion contract for Leopard 2A8 main battle tanks with delivery from 2028
USA: Office Depot Employees Refused to Print Poster in Memory of Charlie Kirk – and Were Fired
Proposed U.S. Bill Would Allow Civil Suits Against Judges Who Release Repeat Violent Offenders
Penske Media Sues Google Over “AI Overviews,” Claiming It Uses Journalism Without Consent and Destroys Traffic
×