Ventilator project makes use of Ballarat’s resources

WHILE many of us spent the first COVID-19 lockdown playing board games and cooking sourdough, one Ballarat innovator spent his time re-designing ventilators.

Director of Gekko Medical and the technical director of Gekko Systems Sandy Gray said he received a call from the Committee of Ballarat asking if he would be interested in designing new ventilators to for the Ballarat Base Hospital.

“The Base realised they only had around 10 ventilators and could have up to 100 ventilator patients and needed more ventilators made for them locally,” he said.

“At Gekko, we manufacture automation and mechatronics stuff so we had previously used pneumatics, electric controls and the core equipment as it’s is in the realm of what we do.

“Doug Paxton from the Anaesthetic Group Ballarat guided me on what the prototype needed to look like and how it needed to work and I went off and made it happen.”

Rather than making use of an existing ventilator design for the GeVentor project, Mr Gray built his own from scratch.

In doing so, he said the team avoided exhausting the dwindling supply of ventilator parts instead opting to utilise equipment that was plentifully supplied.

“What we did was re-develop our own from first principles from equipment that we know is abundant, off the shelf from industrial suppliers,” he said.

“We tried to make as many of the components as we could right here in Ballarat to minimise the amount of stuff we had to purchase.

“The benefit of using highly mass-produced components is that they’re readily available, are relatively inexpensive and most importantly, they tend to be exceptionally reliable because it’s componentry that people are using all day every day.”

After Mr Gray developed the prototype and his team refined the machine, Gekko received the green light from the Therapeutic Goods Administration for the ventilator to go into production.

Minister for the Coordination of Jobs, Precincts and Regions: COVID-19 and Minister for Industry Support and Recovery Martin Pakula announced the Victorian Government’s plans to purchase 170 units from Gekko Medical.

To help get the project over the line, Buninyong and District Community Bank previously offered significant backing committing $60,000 to the project.

Additionally, the Committee for Ballarat, Ballarat Health Services and the community’s support resulted in Gekko securing additional funding to bring the project to life.

Buninyong Community Bank director Steve Falconer said the organisation did not hesitate to join “team Ballarat” with a game changing investment.

“The GeVentor project demonstrates Community Bank purpose in action, for the benefit of many communities,” he said.

“Our funding is helping to build capacity, strength and resilience in Australia’s health care network, bringing the possibility of improving lives in remote communities around the world.”

Gekko Systems chair Elizabeth Lewis-Gray added, “without the Buninyong Community Bank’s pledging their support early and driving the project forward in the conceptual phase we would never be where we are now.”

With production having commenced, Gekko Medical aims to have the GeVentor available and ready for use in hospitals around the state within five weeks.

While the GeVentor was a clear success, Mr Gray said it won’t be the team’s only project and that he’s excited to continue working with the medical industry on future initiatives.

“We’ve got a fantastic connection to the medical system here in Ballarat and they are already thinking of things that they would like us to do to help them out,” he said.

“We believe that increasing our ability to manufacture in Ballarat is fantastic because we can employ more people and continue to develop advanced manufacturing skills.

“We’ve got a fantastic connection into a strong medical system and I see Ballarat has an opportunity here to do something really exciting here as a community.”