Better answers call for P.P.E.

With nearly 75,000 Coronavirus infections recorded in the UK, NHS staff are seeking supplies of Personal Protective Equipment (PPE) from wherever they can get it in the national fight against the disease.

Better Leisure Centres have answered the call by collecting thousands of items - including masks, gloves and overshoes - and donating these to key NHS settings as part of the civil resilience effort.

Better Leisure Centres in London and Surrey donated over 115,000 items of Personal Protective Equipment (PPE) to St Thomas’s Hospital.

In addition to Wembley Leisure Centre, the boroughs providing the PPE are Lambeth, Camden, Reigate and Banstead, Merton, Ealing, Kensington and Chelsea and Hammersmith and Fulham.

Co-ordinator for the London donation of PPE, Lambeth Partnership Manager at Better; Jeremy Lake said:

“As a social enterprise we exist to support the physical, mental and social health of local communities across the UK and our primary concern is to help them through the current crisis which has hit the capital hardest.

“With our facilities now closed, we don’t need the PPE now - but the NHS does. By donating our stocks to St Thomas’s Hospital – one of London’s busiest serving communities in South London – we can help protect more Critical Care staff who are doing the most important job of saving lives every day.”

“Along with the support of our local authority partners, staff volunteers and charity partners, together we are really making a difference in supporting local communities.”

At Better Leisure Centre Maindy, staff boxed-up supplies for Cardiff's University Hospital.

Elsewhere, more Better Leisure Centres are being used as Food Distribution Hubs (including Preston, Islington, Lambeth, Rugby, Bath and Chipping Norton) or Community Recovery Centres (Cumbria).  These are provided free of charge to local authorities' resilience operations.

In Dudley, Better Library Staff have been diverted to delivering medicines to the vulnerable at home and supporting the local food bank call centre.

Better Library Centre Staff in Greenwich and Wandsworth are also being drafted in to support Council Call Centres.

Further support will be forthcoming in the weeks ahead as Better stands together with local communities during the crisis.