TWO old school friends have come together to help frontline health workers facing a national shortage of personal protective equipment.

Matthew Renshaw became concerned after hearing about the PPE shortages they are experiencing in the NHS.

In order to limit the spread of the virus and continue working during the Covid-19 epidemic, PPE is critical for all frontline NHS staff and healthcare workers.

Mr Renshaw discovered the PPE needed is the same equipment regularly used in the construction industry, so he called old school friend Scott Morris, a local builder in Bridport.

"He also knows a lot of people from co-founding the Jurassic Fields festival," said Matthew. "Within 24 hours, donations came flying in from a number of local contractors, builders, building suppliers etc. and Scott kindly dropped off more than 60 masks, a box of eye protection glasses, disposable overalls, gloves, aprons and shoe covers – it was really quite overwhelming.

Bridport and Lyme Regis News:

  • A big donation made at Bridport Community Hospital

"Whilst we have been totally overwhelmed and encouraged by the response we have had so far, we have started to get people offering donations from outside the Bridport area. Worryingly, we have also started to get requests from doctors, nurses, care workers not only in Bridport, but further afield in Devon, Cornwall, Wiltshire, London, Oxfordshire, South Wales, Shropshire and even one nurse in Scotland."

The purpose of the pair's campaign has gone from being a local community effort to a national public ‘Plea for PPE’ - which you can find on Facebook. 

"We hope that in some way we can help get our message out as far across the UK as we possibly can and urge anyone who works in any industry (not just construction) to donate as much PPE to the NHS as they are able.

"Frankly, no one will be using it over the next few weeks or even months and the sooner we help the NHS, the more lives that will be saved and the sooner we will all be back to work," said Matthew.

"Just this morning, we received several requests for PPE from DCH and surrounding NHS centres. So we are calling out to all building contractors, building suppliers, plumbers, electricians, utility contractors, roofers, engineers and basically anyone and everyone in the Dorchester and Weymouth area to raid their PPE stores and donate what they can and as soon as possible (keeping within government regulations relating to self-isolation and social distancing)."

PPE includes:

- Masks (normal surgical masks and FFP2 & FFP3 rated masks and respirators);

- Eye and face protection (goggles, safety specs, full face masks)

- Disposable suits (e.g. tivek), aprons, shoe/boot covers etc

Please call your local NHS centre prior to making donation.

All donated PPE needs to be unused and still in its original packaging.

"We would like to take this opportunity to thank everyone that has donated and supported our campaign thus far. It is truly heartening to see people come together in these difficult times and it makes us very proud of our little old hometown in West Dorset," said Matthew and Scott.

A spokesperson for Dorset HealthCare, which runs Bridport Hospital, said: “We’ve been overwhelmed by the show of support for our staff from the community in Dorset and we’re grateful for any donations that are made. 

“We know that the supply of personal protective equipment (PPE) is currently receiving a lot of media coverage and is the subject of widespread concern.

“The safety of our staff, patients and their families is our absolute priority. We want to reassure them that we are confident in our ability to provide the approved and appropriate PPE needed to keep them safe and healthy.

“We are working closely with our national partners in the NHS Supply Chain and welcome their new system which sees PPE proactively pushed out to NHS Trusts on a daily basis. This approach launched this week and we have already received a substantial delivery of PPE which will be distributed to our sites as needed.

“If you have PPE or other equipment that you feel may be useful to us, please get in touch via dhc.trust.purchasing@nhs.net. Our team can discuss this with you and where appropriate, arrange for the safe delivery of these items."

“Please remember that the best thing you can do to support us is to stay at home, protect the  NHS and save lives.”

A spokesman for Dorset County Hospital said: “We do have our own supplies of PPE, with more arriving regularly, but we are very grateful for any donations of appropriate items to add to our local NHS stocks.”