Military charity support move to new distribution hub

An essential role for Herefordshire Council during the Covid-19 response has been to provide Personal Protective Equipment (PPE) to staff carrying out critical business.

Since the start of the pandemic, the council has been sourcing, buying, distributing and storing PPE stock for non-NHS settings across the county. Many care providers have had difficulty accessing PPE due to high national demand, so the council has also provided free PPE to these sites. Since early April the Council has provided care providers with over 6 million pieces of PPE including over 1.2 million surgical face masks.

As we prepare to live with the long-term impact of Covid-19, the council has created a new Herefordshire PPE hub with support from Operation RE:ACT, Team Rubicon UK’s response to the Covid-19 outbreak.

Nigel Jones, the team leader for RE-ACT and his amazing team of volunteers gave up their own time to help the council pack, load and relocate around 25 pallets of vital PPE to a new, secure location.

Alistair Neill, Herefordshire Council’s Chief Executive, said: “Sourcing and distributing PPE remains of the highest priority to ensure the safety of council and care provider as they carry out their essential duties. We set up a temporary distribution hub for PPE in the first week of lockdown, and our new PPE hub will enable us to continue our supply in the longer term. I would like to thank the Operation RE:ACT team who gave up their time to assist with moving PPE stock to our new, secure centre.”

Herefordshire Council and Operation RE:ACT were also assisted by:

• Eagle Plant Hire Hereford, who provided the Council free use of a self-drive Manitou fork lift; this was expertly driven by Cllr Jim Kenyon.
• DLT Training Ltd Bridgend in South Wales, who provided the Council with a large van and volunteer driver;
• Total Produce Foodservice Hereford who provided the Council with a large van and another volunteer driver;
• Herefordshire Council’s library service who filled up with PPE and drove the library van between the old and new PPE sites.