Engineers at the Manufacturing Technology Centre (MTC) have developed a fast-make protective shield for NHS staff involved in the intubation procedure for Covid-19 patients. The shields, developed in collaboration with medical experts and industrial partners Rolls-Royce Plc., Aston Martin and Multimatic, with wider support from Innovate UK, have been developed from prototype to manufacture in less than a week.

The MTC and partners are producing the first batch of 1,000 units and simultaneously working with the manufacturing supply chain to ramp up immediate capacity to at least 200 units a day to meet expected NHS demand.

MTC chief executive Dr Clive Hickman said: “The acrylic shields with access panels for medical staff are manufactured as complete units or can be produced as flat-pack self-assembly kits. The shield has undergone several design changes during its rapid development following trials in three hospitals and extended trials at a further seven hospitals. Feedback from medical professionals suggests that the shields can be used during the intubation and extubation processes; and may also be useful for other medical procedures beyond Covid-19.”

A technical pack for the flat-pack intubation shield and a video demonstrating the use of the shield are available via the MTC web site here: http://www.the-mtc.org/news-items/intubation-shield-supporting-our-frontline-nhs-workers.

Further open-source technical packs including drawings and assembly instructions have been published by the MTC to give other manufacturers access to the designs.