Specialist medical designers are producing more than 1,000 safety visors a week to keep colleagues safe.
Staff at the Queen's Medical Centre in Nottingham usually spend their time making custom made insoles for patients who suffer from conditions such as diabetes, club feet, plantar bursitis, arthritis and fasciitis.
The specialist orthotics department has switched to producing PPE visors to help medics stay safe.
Now they're appealing for the public to help supply more raw materials so they can keep up the good work.
Phil Buttery, orthotics workshop manager at Nottingham University Hospitals, said:
"We all just want to do our best as support staff to help our frontline colleagues, as all NHS support workers are doing.
“It was becoming clear that there was going to be a strain in the PPE supply chain and we felt we could do something to help fill this in the short term and this is still ongoing.
“I sent some mock up samples to the trust’s PPE/Infection Prevention group for approval.
"Once we got the okay from them we set about manufacturing as many as we could as quickly as we could, they have gone through some design and material changes along the way, following feedback from frontline staff.
“It’s somewhat outside of our normal remit, but orthotics is an innovative profession and as orthotic technicians we tend to have a ‘can do attitude’.”
Part of the visors are made of A4 micron sheets and around 1,000 sheets have been donated by 200 Degrees Coffee Shop.
Co-founder of 200 Degrees Coffee, Rob Darby, said: “In the current COVID-19 crisis the NHS are working at the coalface and all efforts are being made to limit the spread, and to help support our incredible NHS and the capacity at its hospitals.
“The NHS is clearly under a huge amount of pressure during this pandemic and with limited resources on PPE, we wanted to help. Due to the shortage in equipment, such as visors, we decided to donate 1,000 sheets of acetate which form a large part of each visor.
"The team at the Queens Medical Centre are doing an amazing job to create these visors in-house and we hope our donation might encourage others to follow suit.”
Mr Darby said they were appealing to anyone who could to donate acetate sheets.
The acetate sheets are A4 and between 100 and 300 microns thick. The 200 Degrees roast house in Nottingham is acting as a hub for anyone wanting to donate and they are asking people to send their donation through the post.
Mr Darby added: “We will then organise the delivery on to the Queens Medical Centre. We will keep doing this while there is a need and implore others to join in this effort to help save lives.”
All donations must be posted to 200 Degrees Coffee, Heston House, Meadow Lane, Nottingham, NG2 3HE.
