Air ambulance charities appeal for donations to fund PPE
Two of the regions air ambulance charities are appealing for donations to help pay for the huge amounts of personal protective gear they need.
The East Anglian Air Ambulance service have made a video to show how much they use. The service has already spent more than £25,000 on PPE and fear that over a six month period they'll need to spend around £100,000.
Meanwhile, Magpas Air Ambulance has also launched an online donation bucket.
Meeting the demands for personal protective equipment hasn't been easy either.
Demands on suppliers like The Ant Group in Bury St Edmunds are outstripping supply and as fast as components arrive from overseas they are being packed and sent out to healthcare providers across the region.
It comes as some hospital staff are facing a “hand-to-mouth” supply of personal protective equipment (PPE) due to hold-ups in China, the epicentre of the Covid-19 pandemic, a health boss has said.
Chris Hopson, chief executive of NHS Providers in England which represents hospital trusts, said the number of gowns available to staff in some parts of the country was “very, very low”.
However the Foreign Secretary Dominic Raab said the Government was trying to give front line staff reassurance over personal protective equipment
He said: "We understand the importance of getting PPE to the front linewhether it's in care homes or the NHS. I think the strongest practical reassurance they will want and that we can give them is that over the Bank Holiday weekend over 16 million items were delivered and we are straining every sinew to roll them out even further and even faster."