Art Academy London is to make protective visors for NHS staff. The Academy will purchase additional 3D printers to make the masks. The printers will be operated by Julian Wild, Academy Sculpture Pathway Leader and each printer can make hundreds a week.

The Academy is responding to a request from a North London GP, who runs two practices in central Camden, at the heart of the Corvid 19 epidemic. His staff may not be able to obtain sufficient Personal Protective Equipment, so Dr Moghissi approached the Academy to see if it could help.

The Art Academy team have responded quickly to the call and Principal Rob Pepper said “We are abiding by the government’s advice to stay home and stay safe, however we’re desperate to try and help wherever we can. All the NHS staff are on the frontline risking their lives to keep us well, and we’ll be forever thankful to them for that. When Dr Moghissi got in touch it took moments for us to put a plan together. We take delivery of our first printer on Wednesday and Julian will start production straight away.”

The printers cost £2,000 each: the Academy needs your help to buy them and pay for the £50 filament spools that can make 36 visors. The first sets of frames will be sent to Alex’s practice and subsequent frames will be sent to a central assembly point to be connected to the screens, sterilised and then delivered to the NHS.

Dr Alex Moghissi said “There is huge concern that we may not have enough full PPE. We are part of a group of pan Camden GPs who send clinical staff to the central Camden ‘hot’ hub for Covid 19 – these staff need full PPE including visors. Clinical and non clinical staff in both my practices also need varying levels of protection when they’re working from the practice or visiting patients at home. We need to source more visors urgently. Any help the Academy could offer would help to protect NHS staff and save lives.”

To help Art Academy London make visors for the NHS, please donate below.