Schools donate science goggles to help NHS

Schools are being asked to donate science goggles and other apparatus to the NHS to deal with the shortage of protective equipment during the coronavirus outbreak, the Guardian has reported.

Doctors say deliveries are not arriving soon enough, and groups representing frontline staff say doctors could quit over the issue.

Unsworth academy in Greater Manchester has donated more than 50 pairs of science goggles since the outbreak. The school’s principal, Sue Armstrong, said: “We are delighted to be able to help the NHS at a time when we all need to pull together. Schools across the trust are doing all they can to support national services during these unprecedented times and will continue to strive to meet the needs of our students, families and wider school communities.”

Lindsay Skinner, the headteacher at St James school in Exeter, said: “On Sunday my best friend, who is a paediatrician, contacted me to ask if my school had any PPE. I said that we had goggles and glasses in science and technology. I hadn’t imagined that they would be of much use as they are secondary school quality, not medical grade quality. However, she put me in contact with Lowri Harris, the lead south-west GP appraiser, who was very clear: school-quality PPE is better than no PPE.”

She added: “She collected just shy of 200 items from us on Monday. When she saw them, she almost cried. She then delivered them to eight different GP surgeries, including her own.”