BAE Systems say they are donating more than 120,000 face shields to help protect NHS staff on the frontline.

According to a statement from the company:

“As well as supporting the national ventilator effort, employees across our business have rallied to donate vital Personal Protective Equipment (PPE) to the NHS to help protect medical staff around the UK in the fight against Coronavirus.

Employees in our Air sector, who normally produce parts for combat aircraft including Eurofighter Typhoon, and our Submarines business are 3D printing parts for newly designed face shields. Meanwhile, we are sourcing tens of thousands of additional face shields through our supply chain to distribute to the NHS on our behalf, which means we will deliver more than 120,000 face shields to the NHS this month.

Subject to Government approval, in line with industry regulations issued on 4 April, we plan to scale up production of our 3D printed face shield to deliver around 10,000 single-use visors with a smaller number of re-usable head straps over the coming weeks. We are also continuing to work with our supply chain to source further face shields, which we’ll donate to the NHS.”

Dave Short, Technology Director, was quoted as saying:

“We’ve all been moved by the personal bravery of those working in the NHS who face the virus close up every day, so we wanted to help in any way we could. Our employees heard about the need for face shields, so we looked for the quickest way to get effective products to users. At the same time as talking to suppliers, colleagues from our Technology team and our Air sector joined forces to design and manufacture our first 3D printed face shield in less than 24 hours.

We kept in constant dialogue with our NHS contacts to ensure this met their requirements and had the first shields with them in less than two days. We’ve already delivered the first batch of 3D printed face shields, but to really make a difference, our supply chain is manufacturing a further 120,000 face shields to their own designs. More than 20,000 face shields are already on their way to locations around the country, with the remaining face shields set to be delivered to the NHS this month.”

George Allison
George has a degree in Cyber Security from Glasgow Caledonian University and has a keen interest in naval and cyber security matters and has appeared on national radio and television to discuss current events. George is on Twitter at @geoallison

7 COMMENTS

  1. Interestingly the visor/face shield is the one bit off PPE that can be washed and reused. It’s also the bit of PPE that we seem to be really struggling to get hold of at present.

  2. It would be nice if someone would make PPE exclusively for the care home industry, who are being hit hard, and Govt doesn’t appear to care. They don’t even include deaths in care homes in their daily figures – only hospital deaths.

    • To be fair it’s more difficult to compile the deaths in nursing homes, it’s being done, just a different and slowest way than deaths in acute hospitals.

      • Appreciate your point Jonathan, but it still appears that care homes and hospices have (IMO) been ‘conveniently’ air brushed out of the weekly total of deaths published by the government, since day one. Also, there has been no mention of them during the weekly press conferences. No mention at all. Only now, when the pressure is on from the public and media, have they responded.
        My next-door neighbour and good friend works in a local care home and he confirms they have heard nothing so far from government about testing or PPE. All their patients have been confined to their rooms for the past three weeks; matron is taking no more cases from hospitals if they haven’t been tested. The staff haven’t been tested – no-one knows if they are carrying covid-19. It’s a very worrying and stressful time for all of them.
        I sincerely wish Boris a speedy recovery, so he can return to work and sort out this cabinet. AND issue some ‘action this day’ orders to them.

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