Entrepreneurs, doctors and innovative design engineers collaborate to manufacture, assemble, package & deliver protective face shields for frontline staff in the fight against COVID-19.
Last month, Lucy Jung, co-founder of a medical device start-up, Charco, approached US company Delve, who had designed the Badger Shield. Delve had established an open sourced design which was simple, scalable and a safe solution for protecting those in the fight against Covid-19 and has since enabled ShieldNHS to start a volunteer production in the UK. On Tuesday 31 March ShieldNHS delivered the first 2,000 to Addenbrooke’s and Papworth hospital in Cambridge. The initiative is currently working to manufacture, produce and deliver a total of 40,000 shields for NHS frontline staff across the UK and has been funded by the William Chown Charitable Trust Foundation.
Lucy says this initiative was “formed by a lot of collaboration and connections we have made through Cambridge Judge Business School, Imperial College London and the Royal College of Art community.” Lucy is volunteering alongside her fellow co-founders, Alex Dallman-Porter and Dr Floyd Pierres who are participating in the Accelerate Cambridge Programme. Other ventures supported by the programme have provided logistic to tracking support, including: Chris Jordan, Founder of Carryr, Oli Hilbourne, co-founder of Outfield Technologies and John Doherty, Founder of Orca Scan. Lucy explains “We need to make as many as possible, as fast as possible, so that doctors, nurses and everyone on the frontline is protected. Charco’s co-founder, Floyd Pierres, is a doctor at Addenbrooke’s. He was covering a coronavirus ward and saw personal protective equipment (PPE) would be a massive issue.”
“Dr Jag Ahluwalia an alumnus from the Cambridge EMBA programme, really opened the door to us for the NHS. We met him whilst working on our venture at Cambridge Judge. Accelerate Cambridge Coach, Babita Dev alongside Bruno Cotta, Executive Director at Cambridge Judge Entrepreneurship Centre have also been really supportive and provided us with great advice on how to take things further” says Lucy.
Dr Floyd Pierres explains “ShieldNHS is making sure hospitals can accept the shields produced. We have been working with the clinical engineering team at Addenbrookes Hospital on a technical file – producing guidelines on how to manufacture, assemble, package, deliver and trace the shields whilst minimising any contamination from COVID19. We’re hoping the hospitals can adopt this protocol to help get the shields in the frontline.”
ShieldNHS is calling for dedicated volunteers to help assemble and package shields. Please get in touch directly with the team if you could commit to the cause, at [email protected].
Find out more about ShieldNHS >
James Adams
Excellent work as always. It goes to show, you can pivot your skillset to new challenges and make a real difference. Excellent work.