Businesses pull together to equip new hospitals

Two businesses in Leeds have been working together over the past week to help supply NHS Nightingale hospitals with equipment.

Herida Healthcare and Perry Uniform have recently pulled together to manufacture and supply specialist mattresses and mattress covers to new emergency hospitals being created around the country in the fight against coronavirus.

An initial order was made to Herida Healthcare, which is a healthcare manufacturer, to supply specialist air-pump mattresses to the Nightingale hospital in London.

However, with more orders constantly coming in due to the development of additional Nightingale hospitals across the country, the firm desperately needed extra resources to support it with the manufacturing of covers for the mattresses.

With the help of Leeds City Council, Perry Uniform was joined up with Herida Healthcare to help supply the specialist mattress covers.

Perry Uniform typically specialises in the manufacturing of school uniforms. But with the assistance of Herida Healthcare, which supplied it with patterns and fabric, the business was able to start manufacturing the covers. It has already produced 500 covers in just over three days.

Both businesses are working around the clock to manufacture the equipment, with staff at Herida Healthcare working shifts over 24 hours to fulfil the orders.

Staff at Perry Uniform are also working to deliver on the project. Although a number of its staff were furloughed, initially due to lack of demand, the remaining staff worked over the bank holidays in order to meet targets.

All staff are wearing PPE and carrying out social distancing.

Leader of Leeds City Council, Councillor Judith Blake, said: “The collaboration of Herida Healthcare and Perry Uniform is a perfect example of how well Leeds comes together as a city in hard times, and how adaptable our businesses are, large and small.

“UK manufacturing will be a crucial part of tackling this crisis, and I am sure there are others playing their part to that we are yet to hear about.

“I am extremely proud to see local businesses doing their bit to help the national effort and I’d like to say a massive ‘thank you’ to the staff at both of these businesses, and all our essential workers across the city, who are working tirelessly to help in the fight against coronavirus.”

Neil Smith, founder of Herida Healthcare, said: “We all acknowledge the incredible hard work of our NHS in these testing times and it’s great to see the team at Perry Uniform playing a vital part in scaling up to mass production in order to meet the national requirement for pressure care mattresses across the country.

“Their skilled sewing and cutting facilities, usually in application for school uniforms, have been adapted to fully support Herida Healthcare with its ever increasing list of orders.

“Their assistance during such tight time frames has enabled us to meet the increased demand for both beds and mattresses as a result of coronavirus.

“I’d like to personally thank them and David Baggaley of Leeds City Council’s economic development team who facilitated the contact between both parties and skill matched during this immensely pressured time.”

Bernard Bunting, managing director of Perry Uniform, said: “In this national emergency, when approached by Herida having been put in touch by Leeds City Council, we immediately saw a good opportunity to collaborate in supporting the amazing NHS.

“The Perry team were hugely proud to be able to play a small part in this national effort. This was such a productive three way collaboration facilitated by the council.”

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