I am convinced that we can do it comfortably, I am engineer with 20 years experience and know many companies who can assemble basic ventilators in large number,
I am not saying we should build from scratch , I am saying import key components and assemble them here in Pakistan ,,,,
In the long run most of the imported ventilators will go out of commission or be rendered nonfunctional due to lack of maintenance
As an engineer with two decades of experience I am convinced without doubt that we are wasting 30 Billions PKR for equipment we can assemble in 3 Billions ....
The following is my opinion and I respect your opinions as well.
......
Perhaps I have an equal experience of engineering design and modelling - however this's not the matter of who knows what and can make claims.
The issue is not fabricating and putting the parts together but testing and reliability. It's about the lives; and standardization is the prime concern (especially when the equipment is to be used potentially for thousands of patients over its lifetime)..
About the low-tech solutions - for the equipment of this nature - I've different opinion. Go for the latest high-tech latest-designs and hi-tech-manufacturing otherwise the lives of the equipment will be short and not quite cost-effective in the long run. Only repair is issue that favors low-tech solution in this case. However it's not so for all kind of machinery - for example for farm machinery where user is untrained; local repair and mass production are major consideration.
In health related multi-use critical equipment -- reliability, reliable use and control by the operator and standardization are all what really matters.
In short I'll never go for fabricating such equipment in a short span (even months/a year) unless it is done by a manufacturer with decades long experience, R/D and trained workers.
(of course when automaker GM's latest plant in US and a top innovative firm in ventilators (with multiple patents) collaborate together and offer to build ventilators in the span of a month - that's acceptable because the players are trust worthy and at top of innovation.)
On the dollars and economic side I don't know much to make a comment.