More than 1,200 face displays were in boxes that could not be distributed to frontline NHS Wales personnel

More than 1,200 masks cannot be distributed to frontline NHS workers due to problems obtaining certification.

Web designer Richard Blackwell of Pentyrch, Cardiff started manufacturing 3D printer viewers in early April and has formed a large team of volunteers to help assemble and distribute them.

To date, more than 1,500 of its visors have been used by GPs, paramedics, hospital workers and home care personnel throughout South Wales for free. But now the group has been told that their PPE items should no longer be shipped as they may not meet current security criteria.

Its distribution has now been stopped until the shields can be properly tested and approved for use.

Volunteer Scott Dewey, who works as part of the group’s logistics side, which is called Pentyrch and the production of surrounding PPE visors, said: “We have manufactured and delivered more than 1,500 and have more than 1,200 waiting to leave. They will only be kept in boxes until everything is resolved.

“We have also had to inform people, whom we have already given them, not to use them. But most of these people, as you can imagine, would rather have what we have given them than anything else.”

Richard created a GoFundMe page earlier in the month to allow him to create as many viewers as possible. Currently, members of the public and businesses have raised nearly £ 9,000, including a £ 1,000 donation from the Pentyrch community.

As word spread about what Richard was doing, his team of volunteers quickly expanded.

But after a letter from Pete Phillips, from the Surgical Materials Testing Laboratory at Princess of Wales Hospital, Bridgend, the team was advised to stop making their PPE as they could be “illegal” without a CE mark.

Scott, a former assistant producer at BBC Cymru Wales, said there are currently a large backlog of orders for his viewers that cannot be met.

“These visors were intended to be used as an intermediate space,” he added. “We were looking at all the stories about the lack of PPE and we thought we could help.

“Our goal was to earn 500 a day and everyone gave themselves absolutely free. This bureaucracy and bureaucracy should not cost people their lives.”

Paul May, of a separate volunteer group called Cardiff-based Printing for NHS Wales, said his visors were rejected for use at the University Hospital of Wales (UHW) in Cardiff.

He said, “I look at the printed shields and think, ‘That could help someone avoid getting this horrible virus.’

“They are not guaranteed [to protect] And we don’t say they will, but this has to be better than having nothing at all. It infuriates me so much that hospitals reject this and yet provide nothing for their staff.

“Last week, two nurses cried because they finally have something they can wear. At least some type of protection over a cotton mask is better than none.”

“We have never said that they will stop the virus and deliver a letter stating this and also saying that they should not be used alone. We also included in the letters how to clean them and various places to refill the clear sheets.”

Similarly, Jason Aspinall of the Vale Visors group in Barry said his team of five has made 280 visors to date and ordered another 500 for Llandough University Hospital, UHW and Royal Gwent, as well as a multitude of surgeries of doctors, funeral companies and pharmacies.

He said: “A lot of people have been wearing thin acetate, like the ones used in projectors, thin as paper, completely unsuitable for the visor.

“The specification requires 400um or more, which is the specification that Vale Visors has been working on, using the approved headband design.

“So while the public makes them think they are helping, they really need to understand the practicalities of using a visor with a bottom that is not fit for purpose.”

“The public should be able to help where they can as long as they do the right thing.”

Since the project began, Scott said the team has been inundated with kind words of thanks, as well as small gifts like free ice cream.

They are now in contact with their local AMs and MPs to try to bring these acetate visors to those who need them.

The dozens of boxes of unused visors are currently stored in a restaurant in Rhiwbina, Cardiff.

The Welsh government confirmed that all personal protective equipment must meet certain safety standards before it can be provided to front-line health and social care workers.