Production of shields stepped up
DOCTORS are praising a team of Dunedin residents for offering them an extra level of security during the Covid19 pandemic.
Aurora Health Centre staff were in desperate need of face masks after the demand soared, following the nation moving into lockdown last week.
Damien van Brandenburg, of Architecture of Van Brandenburg, and his staff recently began using their 3D printers to make face shields to give to health services, and since putting out the word for others to get on board, production has taken off.
Dr Ingrid Crawford, of Aurora Health Centre, said it had been running an outside clinic in its car park for Covid19 tests, and it was important staff felt safe during the process.
It received five of the face shields from Mr Brandenburg on Thursday, which meant doctors would feel less at risk while seeing sick patients.
She said it had been important to secure a local and accessible supply, and the style of masks they were given could be sterilised and reused.
“We are ecstatic to receive the masks. It means we can keep doing our jobs.”
Mr Brandenburg said since putting out a call a few days ago asking for people who had a 3D printer and were willing to help to contact him, there had been an influx of 12 workers and printers.
It meant the team went from making 75 masks over the course of last weekend to being able to give away about 1600 yesterday.
Mr van Brandenburg said the masks had been distributed to doctors, dentists and pharmacies across Dunedin, as well as some in Queenstown and Invercargill.
The internal Architecture Van Brandenburg workforce had had to be expanded to help with sterilisation and to manage the influx of orders.