Coronavirus West Berkshire: West Berkshire Council has enough PPE
Chief executive provides update on local authority situation
THERE is currently enough personal protective equipment (PPE) for West Berkshire Council’s needs, the local authority’s chief executive has said.
The Government is facing increasing pressure about supplying PPE to NHS staff, with some businesses offering to help saying they have been ignored.
Schools and community groups have been focusing their efforts on supplying hospitals and care homes with face masks and scrubs bags.
The council’s chief executive Nick Carter said: “We have got enough supply at the moment here in Newbury.
“That’s not for hospitals, but it’s for the local authority, GPs other parts of the NHS and social care.
“At the moment we have enough PPE here in West Berkshire.
“We have a stock from central government that we are giving out as people request.
“At the moment we have about a week’s supply.”
National charity Sue Ryder, which has a palliative care hub in Newbury and runs the Duchess of Kent Hospice in Reading, said this week that it would run out of PPE within days (see page 11).
Mr Carter said: “Some organisations will have their own supply chains.
“There has been an issue with the Government’s new national supply chain.”
The council collects its supply of PPE from a depot in Oxford.
Mr Carter said the last delivery came on Monday and a couple of deliveries arrived each week.
The supply of PPE in the district was mentioned at a Thatcham Town Council meeting on Monday by shadow portfolio holder for adult social care at West Berkshire Council Owen Jeffery (Lib Dem, Thatcham Central).
Mr Jeffery said he was “relieved to know while we don’t have any superfluity of PPE it would appear that in West Berkshire we do have enough for care homes and those places that we are directly responsible for”.
But he added “that can change if no fresh supplies come in and there will be a problem, but at the moment we are not in that position”.
The council has also begun testing its staff for Covid-19.
Mr Carter: “We are able to get staff tested who want to be tested.
“It’s for those people who believe they or a member of their family have Covid-19.”
