The NHS in Central Lancashire would like to thank the many local businesses and residents who have already made generous offers to donate equipment and supplies in order to help keep frontline health and care staff safe during the Covid-19 pandemic.
The local NHS clinical commissioning groups (CCGs) continue to work around the clock, seven days a week, to respond to the pandemic and are hugely appreciative of the many generous offers of help and support from the local community. It is well recognised that making sure health and social care staff continue to have access to adequate supply of personal protective equipment (PPE) is vitally important.
Therefore it would be very much appreciated if any other members of the local community wishing to donation spare PPE or other supplies that they aren’t using due to the current UK lockdown measures could please contact [email protected] or call 07557 582391 in the first instance.
A member of the CCGs team will then organise for these items to be collected and stored at our Chorley House base in Leyland. All donations will be utilised alongside existing NHS supplies and help to boost the stockpile of equipment available to local GP practices and care homes in particular. At this moment in time we feel it is only right to over prepare than under prepare and thus want to make sure the maximum amount of PPE and other supplies is available to frontline staff.
Notably, the supplies which we have already been offered and which are of most benefit to frontline health and social care staff are as follows:
- face masks (N95, FFP2 and FFP3 standards)
- disposable aprons
- disposable coverall suits
- face masks and visors
- plastic googles
- shoe covers
- alcohol-based hand sanitiser
- liquid soap
- paper hand towels
The support and offers already received are of no surprise. We continue to be humbled by the kindness and generosity of the central Lancashire community. One such example of this is a local, fully licensed, manufacturer of alcohol hand gels which the CCGs have identified. This manufacturer is willing to use their capabilities to provide a large quantity of alcohol hand sanitiser for frontline staff.
However, the current situation in respect of manufacturing alcohol hand gel is extremely challenging. There is a shortage of crucial component parts needed to manufacture alcohol hand gel, namely:
- raw materials
- alcohol
- gelling agent (thickener)
- bottles and caps
Donations of the above items to aid the production of alcohol hand sanitiser locally would therefore also be hugely appreciated.
