Integrated Care & Social Care

Business partnerships create millions more items of PPE for frontline staff

Millions of items of personal protective equipment (PPE) are to be received over the coming months for NHS and social care staff across the UK battling the coronavirus outbreak, courtesy of new collaborations agreed between Government and major businesses.

Companies including Amazon, the Royal Mint, Jaguar Land Rover and eBay are supporting ongoing efforts from government officials to ensure necessary, high quality PPE supplies end up with frontline staff without an additional cost to the taxpayer.

The announcement follows a call-to-action from the government for businesses around the UK to utilise their existing manufacturing infrastructure and expertise to help meet the growing demand for PPE.

More than 200 potential manufacturers have been identified and many have been contracted to make over 25 million items of PPE and deliver 12 million square metres of PPE fabric to produce items including gowns, gloves and aprons.

Deliveries of these products have already started, including contracts for 2.5 million aprons and 50,000 bottles of hand sanitiser a week, as the UK manufacturing industry looks to step up the challenge set of it by Government. Firms involved are to be supported through the regulatory, testing and procurement process in less than a month to ensure PPE makes it to the frontline as quickly as possible.

Millions of items of personal protective equipment (PPE) are to be received over the coming months for NHS and social care staff courtesy of new collaborations agreed with major businesses.

Health and Social Care Secretary Matt Hancock said: “In continuing to tackle this global pandemic we outlined the need for a great national effort to ensure our frontline NHS and social care continue to have all the equipment they need.

“The support from businesses who accepted this challenge has been phenomenal.

“International demand for PPE has never been so high, and we are now working with over 1,000 businesses and establishing a British manufacturing base, which will see tens of millions of extra items of PPE delivered to the frontline in the coming weeks alone.

“I want to thank Lord Deighton for his work leading this national effort, and everyone who has stepped up to the plate.”

Lord Paul Deighton, Adviser to the Secretary of State on PPE, added: “It’s been fantastic to see so many companies come forward and offer their support for this vital undertaking. We are working tirelessly to look at all offers and are currently engaging with over a thousand different companies.

“However, there’s still more that can be done and I encourage any company with the capacity to step up and join the response. I look forward to seeing what future partnerships we can produce and what they can bring to the table to get healthcare workers the PPE they need.”

Examples of some of the support that have been accepted include:

• The Royal Mint providing over 1.9 million face visors over the next 6 months, with 54,000 being delivered a week.
• A partnership with Amazon allowing the UK Government to harness their global sourcing expertise.
• eBay providing a new platform, jointly developed with Clipper Logistics, that will allow primary, social and community care providers to order from a range of PPE directly – the orders are then fulfilled by Clipper and shipped directly via Royal Mail.
• Survitec, a life-saving product technology company, to begin producing gowns as soon as the beginning of June.
• DTR Medical providing 1.3 million visors, with the first delivery expected next week.
• Bollé Safety, who manufacture protective eyewear, making 6.5 million visors over the course of the pandemic.
• Jaguar Land Rover now manufacturing 14,000 visors a week for healthcare staff
• Don & Low manufacturing 12 million metres squared of fabric for gowns over the next 6 months, with the first delivery expected later this month.
• Burberry manufacturing non-surgical gowns at its factory in Castleford and sourcing masks through its supply chain. To date, the company has donated over 100,000 pieces of PPE to the NHS and healthcare charities.
• Ineos delivering around 174,000 bottles of hand sanitiser a week to NHS hospitals.