COVID-19: More ways than one to help those who need it most

“I am really inspired by our staff’s dedication and imaginative ways of helping in these difficult times and leaving no stone unturned. Every small effort helps.”

James Hutton Institute employees have been helping efforts to provide frontline staff in Tayside and North East Scotland with much-needed personal protection equipment (PPE) during the ongoing COVID-19 crisis. The Institute has previously identified all surplus PPE and supplied it to local NHS contacts. However, our staff are finding further ways of getting PPE to those who need it most including now face shields and masks to protect from bioaerosols.

Hutton staff, with family connections and local networks, heard of the need for more face masks and how surplus acetate sheets could be recycled to make them. After some internal coordination and sharing of ideas the Institute is supplying clear acetate sheets to NHS Tayside’s Orthopaedic and Rehabilitation Technology Services Centre and also the Men’s Shed in Westhill, Aberdeenshire, to produce and assemble face shields.

These face shields are meant to replenish PPE stocks for NHS theatre staff, and to support the efforts of care staff in sheltered housing and care homes. Some are also being given to other frontline workers needing to interact with the public.

In a similar initiative, Hutton members of staff have also produced close-fit face masks made of cotton, featuring two layers of nonwoven linings; these are being provided to a local women’s refuge centre in Dundee.

Professor Colin Campbell, Chief Executive, said: “I am really inspired by our staff’s dedication and imaginative ways of helping in these difficult times and leaving no stone unturned. Every small effort helps. In publicising this we hope to trigger more ideas and ways of helping from even more staff and people everywhere. A huge thanks to everyone for their efforts.”

These initiatives by Hutton members of staff complement previous donations of PPE made by the Institute to NHS Grampian and NHS Tayside, and loans of automated, high-throughput laboratory extraction systems to NHS Highland and NHS Lanarkshire. Lab supplies for PCR testing are also being donated to NHS National Services Scotland and the Institute of Genetics and Molecular Medicine at the University of Edinburgh.