“And this morning I received a message from our contact at the hospital saying that the equipment was already used this weekend,” the University’s environmental director Karolina Kjellberg said on Monday morning.
With Uppsala University Hospital warning about a shortage of protective equipment, many people are eager to help. The Unit for Environment and Physical Work Environment (EMFA) at the University’s Buildings Division was in a position to help coordinate the desire to get involved.
Just before the weekend, an urgent request for help came in: There were shortages of some kinds of protective equipment at Uppsala University Hospital.
By sending out a broad call for help and rapidly organising the material, EMFA was able to collect protective equipment that the Evolutionary Biology Centre (EBC), Uppsala Biomedical Centre (BMC) and the Ångström Laboratory could do without. As early as Friday afternoon. EMFA could deliver a large quantity of face masks, face shields, hand sanitiser, goggles and aprons/protective overalls to Uppsala University Hospital.
“Today it was a matter of providing assistance after an urgent request. And the University has proved very willing to respond. Many thanks for all this,” says the University’s environmental director Karolina Kjellberg.
Earlier this week, the University also managed to deliver 180 protective face shields produced by 3D printing, and 400 more screens for laser working are being produced for Uppsala University Hospital.
The prototypes for the 3D prints are two popular Open Source protective face shield designs that have circulated on the internet and that meet the requirements for protective equipment in healthcare.
“We’re delighted to be able to use the capacity that exists here at U-PRINT to help our colleagues at Uppsala University Hospital and we will continue to manufacture as many face shields as we can for the hospital. It’s inspiring to see how the community is coming together to help one another in this crisis situation,” says Olle Eriksson, research engineer at U-PRINT, Uppsala University’s 3D printing facility.
According to environmental director Karolina Kjellberg, further batches of protective equipment that were not included in this delivery will probably be sent next week.