Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:

To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, how many ECMO machines the NHS has in England; and what plans he has to procure additional machines in response to covid-19.

Extra Corporeal Membrane Oxygenation (ECMO) is used for patients with severe respiratory failure with a potentially reversible cause. There are five adult ECMO centres in the United Kingdom, two of which are in London and the others are based in Leicester, Manchester and Cambridge. The Department does not hold data on the number of ECMO devices available for use at any one time but is working with National Health Service colleagues to secure additional capacity.

The Government will be working alongside NHS England to tailor its response to the nature, scale and location of the threat of COVID - 19 in the UK, as our understanding develops.