Plastics firm helps shield key workers
APLASTICS firm has developed a safety-visor to protect NHS and care workers as well as others on the frontline of the fight against coronavirus.
Macpac is currently able to produce around 100,000 face-shields per week at its factory in Heaton Mersey - but could double its output if required.
Over the Easter weekend boss Graham Kershaw handed out hundreds to pharmacies, care homes and nurses around his home town of Macclesfield before full production began this week.
The lightweight guard is designed to sit comfortably against the forehead and at an angle which allows staff to also wear glasses, protective goggles or face masks.
A shortage of personal protective equipment (PPE) for frontline health and care workers remains one of the most controversial aspects of the coronavirus crisis.
But with Macpac already set up to provide packaging for the pharmaceutical industry - and its visor approved by the government regulator Graham says the firm is ideally placed to deliver the gear to where it is desperately needed.
And with horror stories reaching him from the frontline of the Covid-19 pandemic he and his 55-strong team felt they had to ‘do their bit’.
“It’s terrifying,” said Graham. “one of the head buyers for one of the NHS trusts told me there were surgeons operating on
Covid-19 patients without any protective equipment, that really upset me.”
Macpac’s operation is entirely non-profit making but, being a small company, is now having to sell rather than donate its visors.
“We are not trying to make money, ours are some of the cheapest you can get.
“We just wanted to help everybody. The team wanted to muck in and do something, we are seeing products out there and we can make them. As soon as we realised we could we though ‘right, we have got to do this’.
The manufacturing and design process was massively fast-tracked to ensure the visors could be available as soon as possible. It’s been a hell of a team effort, to get to where we are - it’s been a very stressful weekend,” said Graham.
The shields, which are suitable for all key workers with a public-facing role, can be easily washed or wiped down for re-use if required.
They are also made entirely of recyclable materials.
Orders can be placed via online with each box containing 25 visors with loose elastic straps and easy assembly instructions.
Boxes are priced at £68.79 each.
To order visit https:// plantpac.net/shop/misc/ face-visor/