Setback for community’s bid to provide visors for nurses

Anstruther residents raise thousands to produce face shields using 3D printer – but batch returned because they had not been tested

Residents in a Fife community have been left disappointed after a batch of homemade face shields designed to protect frontline staff from coronavirus were sent back because they had not been thoroughly tested.

Anstruther residents raised more than £2,700 to help local woman Fiona Corps and her friend Kevin Lancaster produce visors using Kevin’s 3D printer.

Health bosses have said they are grateful for all of the public support, but stressed they have enough supplies to go round at the moment and cannot use untested equipment.

A new central point of contact has since been created to cope with the huge response from people who want to supply PPE for frontline workers.

Nicky Connor, director of Fife’s health and social care partnership, said colleagues were “extremely grateful” to community organisations and the public for generous donations of PPE, describing the response as “humbling”.

But she said: “Our health and social care staff have sufficient supplies of PPE and while the offers of PPE are appreciated, we have a responsibility to ensure that any apparatus we use is tested rigorously or we risk placing staff and those we care for at risk.”

The visors donated by the Anstruther volunteers were initially offered to district nurses at the Skeith Health Centre but were returned as they had not been cleared for use.

However, a number of other local workers have been able to make use of them at sites including Pittenweem Health Centre, the East Neuk Pharmacy, and Willow House and Ladywalk care homes, and Fiona and Kevin are continuing to produce them for those who can accept them.

Fiona said she was disappointed at the decision to send the initial batch back but grateful for all of the support to fund her and Kevin’s efforts.

“The decision to make face shields for our frontline workers was born after a conversation with my auntie about the shortage of PPE locally,” she said.

“It was brought to my attention that our local community nurses were often frightened and very anxious as they were expected to carry out their daily routine appointments with very little protection.”

Fiona set up a Go Fund Me page which collected more than £2,700 from various sources, ranging from £500 from each of the Craws Nest Trust, the Mary Leishman Association, the Upstart Foundation and Fife Council, to seven-year-old Anstruther girl Daisy Murray donating £113.34 from her own savings.

“I have been overwhelmed by the generosity of our local community and beyond,” she added.

“Everyone that has been willing to part with their hard-earned cash in such difficult times is just awesome.

“Their generosity has enabled us to purchase a further two printers so that we can increase production to about 30 face shields per day.

“When this is all over, we hope to donate these printers back into the community for the next generation to learn new skills.”

Seven-year-old Daisy Murray, from Anstruther, handed over more than £113 of her own savings to help pay for the face shields, below, to be produced using a 3D printer.