The government has expressed the need to increase the stock number of ventilators from 10,000 to at least 18,000, but on Monday the number of life-saving ventilators available to NHS patients had increased by just 200 in one week, despite the health secretary Matt Hancock insisting eight days ago there would be “another 1,500” available.

“There’s been an increase of around 200 over the past week,” the prime minister’s official spokesperson said. “There are another 2,000 mechanical ventilators on order plus thousands of provisional orders for industry designed ventilators.

“The key point here is obviously the NHS continues to have spare capacity in terms of beds in intensive care units and ventilators, and that anybody who needs intensive care treatment or a ventilator has access to it.”

The decision not to proceed with the order for the BlueSky machines will not cost the government as they had not been paid for due to the need for regulatory approval, with the Medicines and Healthcare products Regulatory Agency (MHRA) yet to sign off on the device after finding it unsuitable for treating Covid-19 patients.