A WIMMERA health service has found its own regional solution to a nationwide issue.
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The threat of COVID-19 has led to a shortage of personal protective equipment, PPE, across the country.
Stawell Regional Health chief executive Kate Pryde said the hospital was yet to be in a position where it ran out of PPE.
But she said medical teams were concerned about a potential shortage of face shields in the future.
"We don't have a big supply," she said.
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Ms Pryde said in metropolitan areas, hospitals were turning to universities to for innovation.
But Stawell Regional Health wanted to find a solution in its own community.
Enter Stawell sewing and upholstery business Carey Covers.
Ms Pryde approached the business and asked if they wanted to work together, and Carey Covers leapt at the opportunity.
"As soon as they rang us I said 'yeah, come down'," joint owner Robert Carey said.
"By the time they came down we had something sewn up and made."
"We went down two hours later and they were already giving something a go," Ms Pryde said.
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Mr Carey said said the business was honoured to be involved.
"It looks pretty promising," he said.
Ms Pryde said the face shields were a simple mechanism.
Hospital staff showed Mr Carey and his team the industry standard and talked through what they wanted.
Face shields must sit away from the face to allow for goggles, wrap around the face, allow the wear to drop their face down without it moving out of place, and must be disposable.
Carey Covers created prototypes that took into consideration the wishes of the Stawell clinicians, who wanted longer and wider protective gear.
The clinicians will now test the prototypes and give their feedback.
Mr Carey said he was thrilled to be able to help his community. "We're pretty rapt," he said.
He hoped his products would help the teams dealing with COVID-19.
Mr Carey said the coronavirus had not had a huge effect on his business.
"We've been in a situation a few times where more elderly people have said 'don't come on site, we'd prefer not to have outsiders on the property'," he said.
"Most of the time we've been asked to work around this."
He said closures had allowed the business to work at schools without risk.
Ms Pryde said the face shields might not just be used in the battle against coronavirus.
"Even if COVID-19 isn't as big as people were originally thinking, we're trying to transition back to opening theatres. Face shields are useful there as well," she said.
A ban on elective surgeries will be lifted on Monday, after they were suspended last month to free up hospital capacity to deal with the COVID-19 pandemic
Other procedures to restart include screening programs, all child surgeries, joint replacements, eye procedures, endoscopies and colonoscopies. They comprise all category two and some category three procedures.
Ms Pryde said the hospital had scheduled category one surgeries for this week and next week.
"There are critical surgeries that need to take place. We've already planned for two of these to be done," she said.
"But we still need to work within the confines of COVID-19 safety measures. We can't just unravel those in a day."
Ms Pryde said the health service did not want to give the virus a chance to "rear its ugly head".
"Within the health service we've had to plan for the worst. That scenario is still in the forefront of our minds," she said.
"We're mindful if we take our eye off the ball it could run amok again."
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