Barts Health team providing PPE lifeline to North East London community
A team from Barts Health NHS Trust is part of a network delivering vital personal protective equipment (PPE) to community organisations across North East London (NEL) during the coronavirus pandemic.
The NEL PPE escalation supply service was established just one month ago on 30 March.
To date, it has delivered more than a quarter of a million items to over 220 community organisations, including GP surgeries, care homes, hostels, hospices, pharmacies, dental practices and those providing domiciliary care.
The service – a joint initiative between Barts Health, members of the North East London Commissioning Support Unit (CSU) and several Care Commissioning Groups (CCGs) – provides emergency deliveries of key equipment such as gloves, visors, aprons, face masks and hand sanitisers.
It has 32 members of staff and operates seven days a week.
The supplies are separate from those received by acute NHS trusts, such as Barts Health, and all items are delivered on the same day or the following morning.
Barts Health receives stocks of PPE on behalf of the whole of North East London to the NEL ‘hub’ which is based at Whipps Cross Hospital.
It’s from here that this supply is distributed into the community.
Demand for PPE has increased by around 400% nationally since the start of the Covid-19 outbreak and getting the correct equipment to the right place in a timely way has never been more important.
The new emergency service has proven invaluable for organisations whose normal supply of PPE has been diverted to NHS and private hospitals.
After volunteering to be redeployed during the pandemic, Natalie O’Donoghue switched from her regular role as investment lead at Barts Health to become operational manager for the service.
Barts Health colleagues Joanna Rippingale, Matt Smith and Jasdeep Dhillon provide logistics support and Faatimah Pandor assists with operations at their Whipps Cross hub.
Natalie said: “From the members of the escalation team to those in the stores department at Whipps Cross; from the Whipps Cross supply chain team led by Keith Scarfe to the delivery drivers provided by Bates Office Supplies who are working free of charge, everyone has been incredibly positive and flexible.
“Working so closely with people from different departments and organisations during these challenging times has been great, and it’s extremely rewarding to see the results of our hard work.
“The creation of this service puts us in a good place for the future, forging relationships now and showing what we can achieve when we all come together.
“It’s been a real community effort.”
Barts Health NHS Trust director of procurement Lucie Jaggar said: “In just four weeks the service has established itself as a lifeline for community organisations with less than 36 hours worth of PPE in reserve.
“It’s a fantastic example of team-working and I’m immensely proud of Natalie, Joanna, Matthew, Jasdeep and Faatimah for their incredible efforts in both creating and running the service.
“Many of them have been redeployed from different parts of the organisation but they have all hit the ground running.”
One such organisation to benefit from the service is St Joseph’s Hospice in Hackney.
Natalie has been having weekly calls with the Jeff Bennett, stores control manager at the hospice, to help them get the PPE they need to keep staff and residents safe.
Jeff said: “The team have been very compassionate and understanding of our situation.
“I have been extremely impressed by them.”
Find out more about our response to the coronavirus pandemic here.