Member Article

Manchester based Pilot Group design and donate 1,900 vital PPE visors to NHS Trusts across the North

Pilot Group is donating more than 1,900 protective visors to frontline NHS staff, trusts and hospices across the North West after staff and volunteers within Pilot Group worked to design and manufacture the visors with the guidance of the NHS.

The much-needed PPE is being delivered to NHS workers at multiple locations across Wrightington, Wigan and Leigh NHS Foundation Trust and the East Lancashire NHS Trust over the coming weeks after undergoing thorough testing to ensure they do their job of protecting the frontline key workers.

Pilot Group reopened their manufacturing facility when they realised that they had the tools and materials at their disposal to create the protective visors that have been lacking.

Staff and volunteers across the group designed a prototype before starting to mass produce as many and as quickly as possible to meet the demand. The 1,900 visors will now start to be delivered safely to Wrightington, Wigan and Leigh NHS Foundation Trust and the East Lancashire NHS Trust over the coming weeks for immediate use on the frontline.

Simone Peppi, Chief Operating Officer at Pilot Group said: “I couldn’t be prouder of our workforce; this has been a combined effort from so many staff within our group. When we took the difficult decision to furlough some staff within the government guidelines, our colleagues looked at the ongoing situation regarding PPE and wondered whether there was a suitable visor that we could design or manufacture to help protect keyworkers.

“When we realised we had the capability to make protective visors for NHS frontline workers we immediately reopened the manufacturing facility and staff and volunteers started working on a prototype.

“Now, following their dedicated efforts, we have 1,900 visors being delivered to trusts around the North West over the coming weeks.

“Pilot Group’s mission is to make the place you live and work, smart, safe and sustainable. As a business, we are immensely proud and grateful that we had the equipment and skilled workers in place to be able to deliver this vital PPE to our wonderful and courageous NHS frontline workers.

“We are endeavouring to source further materials to help manufacture more PPE so we can continue to support key workers as much as possible in this unprecedented time.”

The visors that have been supplied to the trusts are made from 1.0mm polyethylene terephthalate with the addition of ethylene glycol (PETG) and feature a fully adjustable headband.

This was posted in Bdaily's Members' News section by Alex Duckett .