Yahoo Finance Coronavirus: Nuclear decommissioning firm donates 66,000 items of PPE to NHS
Nuclear decommissioning firm Magnox is donating 66,000 items of personal protective equipment (PPE) to the NHS in the fight against the coronavirus in the UK.
The items include disposable respirators, suits and gloves and will be donated from 14 Magnox sites across the UK as well as the company’s contractors and suppliers.
The company said they are donating all the PPE that can be spared without impacting on nuclear safety or emergency preparedness.
The items would normally be used to support the delivery of work and projects on the Magnox sites, however much of this work has been temporarily paused due to the coronavirus pandemic.
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The PPE items will be distributed to doctors, nurses and care workers within the NHS.
The government has confirmed that NHS staff and care workers may be asked to use some PPE items more than once, after a leaked Public Health England (PHE) document showed it was being considered as a “last resort.”
The leaked memo, uncovered by the BBC, showed that protective masks and gowns may need to be washed and reused when stocks run low and admits there is currently a “reduced ability to resupply” PPE, highlighting the need for the items.
Gwen Parry-Jones, Magnox CEO of Magnox, said: “A key part of out response to COVID-19 is to help other organisations deal with the pandemic wherever we can.
“Clearly the need for PPE across the UK is urgent and our sites have done a fantastic job to identify PPE in Magnox stores that could safely be shared to support front line support work.
“The Nuclear Decommissioning Authority has given us their full support in passing this stock to local resilience forums in the communities in which we operate, while retaining enough to deal with any emergency that might arise at our sites.”
