By Eric White
YOURTHURROCK followed the story on Monday (April 20) that Basildon and Thurrock University Hospital, the worst-hit by the corononavirus in Essex, were one of three hospitals to confirm they could wash and reuse Personal Protective Equipment (PPE) as the UK face a national shortage of gowns.
Joint Chief Executive Clare Panniker said: “The safety of our staff is our absolute priority. Throughout the current Covid-19 pandemic we have been working tirelessly to ensure we have supplies of PPE for staff who need it.
“However, it is now looking like there is a national shortage of gowns, and we could find ourselves in a difficult situation in the coming days and weeks. We want to be on the front foot, and to keep our staff safe, so are looking at ways of ensuring we have equipment available.
“We have worked closely with our microbiology and infection control leads – as well as our union colleagues – and have started to look at decontaminating our gowns and coveralls so we can use them again.”
For our report please go to the following website address: www.yourthurrock.com/2020/04/20/basildon-thurrock-university-hospital-confirm-wash-re-use-ppe-shortage-concerns/
Amidst these huge concerns, it is heart-warming to see the efforts the community are making to help. A fantastic example of this is the Facebook group ‘Supplies for NHS Hospital staff Basildon & Thurrock’, which gives people in the community a more accessible way of making contributions.
In the group, here have been many incredible examples of care from people in these difficult times.
Here is one post from Admin Jackie Coleman yesterday morning (Wednesday 22 April):
“2nd Delivery of PPE . All allocated to hospitals and frontline workers.
“Thank you to the kind gentleman who paid buts wants to remain anonymous.”
Please see image of delivery below:
Another post from Faye Tanning in the group yesterday read: “A massive donation of hand sanitiser ive just picked up from Terri-ann Boyle at IWS 40 boxes wasnt sure they was going to fit in my car thankyou do so much everyone at IWS especially terri for making it happen.”
Below are two images that accompanied the post:
To go to the group page go the following website address: www.facebook.com/groups/491848241511077/
