ShieldNHS, a temporary not-for-profit organisation, has formed to donate and assemble face shields to the NHS. With the help of firefighters at Lambeth station, London, ShieldNHS is on track to deliver 40,000 face shields to hospitals around the country within the next week.
London firefighters have turned their hands to shield production over the last few days, creating an amazing 7000 face shields to support their colleagues in the medical emergency services and care sector.
Addenbrooke’s Hospital in Cambridge has created a standard operating procedure to minimise the risks with the disposable face shields. They have gone through rigorous testing by the infectious control and clinical engineering innovation teams and have been approved for use during the Covid-19 pandemic. Addenbrooke’s has also agreed to share the procedures and technical file to speed up the process for other trusts to use the PPE.
Founded by Lucy Jung, ShieldNHS started at the end of March to provide personal protective equipment (PPE) for NHS workers. The organisation comprises of medics, engineers and volunteers who worked to bring an American shield design to the UK that meets Essential Safety and Performance Requirements by law.
“I couldn’t believe it when a team firefighters got in touch and offered to help, they have been fantastic and have really made a difference to our mission,” says Lucy Jung, the creative mind behind ShieldNHS. “It’s allowed us to speed up our whole production process and get shields to frontline NHS staff even quicker than we had ever dreamed”.
Station Commander Paul McClenaghan from CBRN Team at Lambeth Fire Station comments: “We have so far built 9000 shields and delivered all of them to NHS hospitals. We are looking forward to building the next batch of 3000. The London fire Brigade is dedicated to protecting the people of London and our NHS.”
The face shields being produced follow the Badger Shield open source design, originally created by US company Delve. The component parts have been made using private funding so far and a public crowdfunding campaign to raise £40,000 is due to increase output and make another 40 thousand shields for distribution, with £10,995 already raised towards the next batch. The assembly of the units is being taken on by dedicated volunteers including the Lambeth firefighters.
There’s ongoing website fundraising on both Facebook and Twitter.
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