University converts offices into factory

Hereford’s future university has converted its offices into a factory producing personal protective equipment.

The New Model Institute for Technology and Engineering has converted its administration offices at Gardner Hall, Hereford, into a makeshift factory producing vitally needed PPE items for both NHS acute hospitals and local care homes.

NMITE staff, who are operating the factory 24 hours a day and seven days a week, have so far manufactured more than 500 headshields.

They have delivered more than 300 of these 3D printed forehead bands with transparent acetate visors to health care workers at Hereford County Hospital, local GP surgeries, Hampton House nursing home, and Wye Valley NHS Trust’s community palliative care team, among others.

The design and durability of the headshields manufactured by NMITE was approved by clinicians at the NHS Midlands and Lancashire Commissioning Support Unit on April 10 April.

The Herefordshire and Worcestershire NHS clinical commissioning group has since ordered 1,000 headshields, each with five disposable visors, to distribute to care homes.

NMITE is also focusing on collating and distributing masks, gloves and aprons for rapid dispatch to health care locations in need. They are appealing to all local firms who currently hold stocks of these in-demand items and asks them to visit www.nmite.ac.uk/partnership-support/support-during-covid-19 for a list of required materials and contact details to arrange donations.

Professor Elena Rodriguez-Falcon said: “All the news has been about the need to supply PPE to frontline health care workers, and we are responding by harnessing the capabilities of our team to deliver new engineering solutions to increase production and delivery targets and working closely with clinicians, senior NHS directors and our partners including the local further education college and schools to pool resources such as 3D printers.”