Toyota helps relieve PPE pressure

Engineers at Bondholder Toyota Motor Manufacturing (UK) Ltd have designed and manufactured PPE to help staff at fellow Bondholder University Hospitals of Derby and Burton NHS Foundation Trust, as well as Derbyshire Healthcare NHS Foundation Trust.

The initial designs of plastic visors went from concept to manufacture in just one week.

Ifti Majid, chief executive at Derbyshire Healthcare NHS Foundation Trust, said: “We are hugely appreciative that Toyota staff were able to use their initiative and knowledge to produce something that is extremely important to NHS colleagues at this time, and that will really make a difference to our frontline service delivery.”

He went on to say: “This is a brilliant example of communities coming together to help, and anything that takes some pressure off our demand on the NHS Supply Chain and means we can release more kit into the wider healthcare system must be a good thing.”

Toyota teamed up with universities in Liverpool to design design and manufacture the visors for healthcare staff and with Loughborough University, as they have greater access to 3D printers.

Reusable plastic visors, or face shields, are a key element of PPE used by key workers who are caring for coronavirus patients. The trust's assistant director of public and physical healthcare, Richard Morrow, said: “The Toyota team produced an initial prototype using a 3D printer and we were able to confirm that it would be suitable. So they went straight into production and began to deliver the visors.”