Heriot-Watt’s Galashiels campus produces PPE for local care homes

Staff at Heriot-Watt University’s Galashiels campus are utilising their expertise and resources to produce protective personal equipment (PPE) for care homes in the local area.

Four members of staff at the campus, which is home to the School of Textiles and Design, have volunteered to tailor a scrub design out of fabric and are in the process of making 70 sets of scrubs in a variety of sizes with the aim of producing a further 100.

Head of the School of Textiles and Design, Professor Fiona Waldron said:

“As a school of textiles and design we have the materials to help our local community. Our staff who have come forward to volunteer have been a great inspiration and they are working hard, in social distancing conditions, to make as many scrubs as they can.

“In these unprecedented times if we can help even a few, then it is worth it.”

The 100% cotton scrubs will be distributed free of charge to local care homes and NHS healthcare settings. The scrubs are life-long protection products meaning they can still be used after the pandemic.

Jane Robertson, one of the volunteer staff at the Borders campus, said:

“We have the perfect equipment space and expertise to help provide the key workers with what they need, so we are very happy to help and feel that it our moral obligation to do so.

“We have been joking that these will be the best made scrubs in the country, as we are all finding it difficult to let the quality slip in order to sew them faster!”

The team has now been asked by the COVID Safety Network to produce 1000 cotton masks to go into PPE care boxes as part of their Care Boxes 4 Care Homes initiative. The boxes contain everything frontline staff need to protect themselves and others including visors, gloves, and hand sanitiser.