APPEAL: Can you help Glasgow hospital technicians to make face visors for frontline staff?
They're in need of 1/2mm acetate sheets urgently to keep staff safe.
Last updated 25th Mar 2020
Members of staff at the Royal Children's Hospital are asking for your help to keep staff working on the frontline safe through the coronavirus pandemic.
Technicians are looking for donations of 1/2mm A4 acetate sheets to make face visors in order to protect those dealing with patients with suspected coronavirus.
They're appealing to stationery shops and any other companies who may have spare stock of this which they don't have a need for during lockdown.
Ian Adam, orthotic technician at Royal Hospital for Children in Glasgow, said:
"With the crisis at the moment, there's a desperate need for face visors in hospitals and although we are ordering them, obviously in the UK there's a limited supply.
"One of my colleagues who works in the Isle of Wight had actually been able to manufacture these using some materials they had in the workshop.
"Myself and a couple of technicians thought - 'surely we should be able to do this?'
"It would be great if we had a massive stock of these sheets because obviously they're classed as single use.
"That means the hospital is going to go through a massive amount of these - it'll be an unprecedented amount.
"So if we can manufacture these, we can give unlimited stock to the hospital."
Mark Lilley, major trauma co-ordinator at the Royal Children's Hospital in Glasgow, said:
"Today we're exploring how we can make visors to protect our staff from the COVID-19 virus when they're working with children.
"These masks and visors are crucially important at keeping our staff safe from infection.
"We urgently need acetate film - we have stock that arrives daily to the hospital but that has to be distributed throughout many many departments and we're struggling to keep up with demand."
Anyone who can help is asked to contact Melville Dixon at melville.dixon@ggc.scot.nhs.uk.
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