Members of the Bishop Grosseteste University (BGU) community have been working hard to support the County’s drive to get vital PPE to essential front line workers.
Luke Pennington, Analyst Programmer at BGU, has been using the University’s 3D printer to create headbands to produce face shields for Health care workers. Although he wasn’t always the biggest fan of the process he was keen to support others when the opportunity arose:
“I’m not really a fan of home 3D printing under normal circumstances as I think it raises a number of questions around the environment and the spread of plastics. However, I read in the press about home enthusiasts printing PPE kit for healthcare workers and realised the University’s 3D printer could be an excellent tool for supporting this. As an individual printer I wouldn’t be able to produce enough shields fast enough on my own my but I found a Lincoln group of volunteers coordinating supply and demand and got approval to join in.
I have been printing for about 5 weeks now and have produced over 80 shields. The completed shields are sent onto the group which distributes them so I’m not involved directly in sending them out but my first batch went towards the East Midlands Ambulance Service, Lincoln County hospital, local care homes and A & E departments.”
Lynne, from Flower Park Care Home, was one of the health care professionals to receive a face shield made by the volunteers and she was full of praise for the impact of their efforts:
“It’s fantastic that the group have made these face shields and all of us at Flower Park care home are really grateful as we feel so much safer at work wearing them.”
In addition BGU was approached by 3DCrowdUK which is a Non-Profit Voluntary Organisation set up to help provide PPE to NHS and Key Workers during this pandemic. The University’s Hardy Building has now been transformed into a logistics hub for Lincolnshire, collecting and redistributing PPE being manufactured to volunteers all over the county. Alongside BGU’s offer of facilities a number of its furloughed staff, particularly from the Estates team, are volunteering in various capacities from Hub Coordinator to logistics coordinators and drivers.