Coronavirus - BSI Group

As coronavirus (COVID-19) continues to spread around the world, BSI has been working hard to support UK business, society and the Government during this crisis period and to prepare for our future recovery.

We have enabled open access to a suite of standards, without charge, to help meet the immediate challenges caused by COVID-19 and help UK businesses adapt their production and weather the current challenges. The following standards are now available free online:

· Hygiene standards

· Personal Protective Equipment (PPE) standards

· Risk management and business standards

· Ventilator standards

Across the BSI Group we are receiving extensive enquiries from manufacturers and from central and devolved governments to which we are responding daily. We are coordinating the information that we receive across our standards, regulatory and assurance services and we will continue to respond to all requests as best we can over the coming weeks and months.

We are working hard to support the supply of ventilators and ventilator components and have developed a specification for ventilators to be used in UK hospitals during the COVID-19 outbreak. This guidance sets out the clinical requirements based on a consensus of what is ‘minimally acceptable’ performance in the opinion of anaesthesia and intensive care medicine professionals and medical device regulators.

In support of the efforts being made and in collaboration with MHRA, BSI has worked with international standards organizations to make these standards relating to ventilators available without charge for the purposes of organizations that are involved in the UK COVID-19 response.

We have launched a series of webinars. The first of these was held on 31 March on COVID-19 and Organizational Resilience. Three other webinars are planned over the next 10 days:

COVID-19 and Risk Management – 7 April 2020, 9.30am – 10.30am

COVID-19 and Continuity – 9 April 2020 – 11am – 12.30pm

In our role as the National Standards Body, BSI will continue to explore all possible ways that we can support the national effort to mitigate the impact of Covid-19 on public health and the economy.

For further information and updates, please see visit our website and LinkedIn page. We would welcome your comments or suggestions where standards could further aid the NHS and industry.

Keep safe and kind regards,

Scott Steedman CBE

Director of Standards