Monday 18 January 2021 - for immediate release
Charities offer to deliver free PPE within 48 hours
to keep healthcare workers safe
Three charities have joined forces to ensure UK healthcare workers get the PPE they need to stay safe in the latest surge of the Covid-19 pandemic. Insufficient, ill-fitting or poor-quality PPE has already led to the unnecessary deaths of healthcare workers since the beginning of the pandemic.
Frontline Live, the rapid response digital platform built and run by volunteers to keep frontline workers safe in crisis, has combined with MedSupplyDrive UK and Healthcare Workers' Foundation to provide life-saving PPE.
Healthcare workers anywhere in the UK can report PPE shortages on the Frontline Live website or tweet their need using three hashtags: #FrontlineMap #postcode #PPEneed and, with the support of MyHermes, free PPE will be delivered to them within two days.
MedSupplyDrive UK, a charity founded and run by doctors, collects money for and donations of high-quality PPE. Healthcare Workers' Foundation, a charity working to increase the well-being and welfare of healthcare workers, are storing that free high-quality PPE and have agreed to provide logistics.
Frontline Live ran a survey to find out if frontline healthcare workers feel confident they have the PPE they need to stay safe. Fewer than 10% of frontline health care workers believe they will get the PPE they need. The vast majority are scared they will not.
Comments from the survey include: "We have run out of FFP3 masks already on our ward!" and "Masks that fit well enough to provide adequate protection are already running out."
Katz Kiely, Chair of Trustees of Frontline Live, said: "The survey results identified a clear need for better PPE provision for our brave healthcare workers. They can now request PPE via our website and we will get it to them within 48 hours. I have been overwhelmed by what the power of purpose can achieve and so grateful to our partners for stepping forward to help those that are helping us."
NOTE TO EDITORS
Media contact
Stephen Fleming, Communications Advisor, Frontline Live
Email:stephen@flemingpr.com
Phone:+44 (0) 7718 756 615
Charity Frontline Live is a rapid response platform built and run by volunteers to keep frontline workers safe in crisis. The pandemic has proved centralised systems and traditional procurement frameworks are not agile enough to respond to need in times of crisis. So Frontline Live volunteers built a decentralised platform that has empowered citizens and communities across the UK, letting them respond rapidly to needs as they appear.
Katz Kiely, Chair of Trustees of Frontline Live, is available for interview upon request.