Tailoring business working to protect hospital staff
A tailor has turned her talented team and their machines over to making PPE.
Gill Long, owner of Cock of the Walk, is confident of producing 250 surgical gowns a day with her staff of six working from home and from their business premises in Grimston Street, Hull.
The gowns are disposable, but Long is also working on a prototype for a new, washable surgical gown and will begin tests when she receives cotton fabric from her supplier in Huddersfield.
After the Coronavirus crisis began cutting into her orders, Long tried to find PPE work for her team of eight, who include tailors from Latvia, Poland, Russia and Spain.
After five weeks without success she spoke to contacts in the Hull business community and was introduced to Hull North MP Diana Johnson, who made the vital introduction to senior management at Hull Royal Infirmary.
Hull and Humber Chamber of Commerce hosted a conference call between Johnson, Hull West and Hessle MP Emma Hardy and various business leaders including Kathryn Shillito, executive director of HullBID.
Long said: “The team at HullBID told us the MPs were eager to hear about the experiences of local businesses in dealing with issues around Coronavirus.
“I’d given up by then but I wrote to the MPs to get everything off my chest. I told them what had happened and how frustrated we were.
“Diana replied within about half an hour and asked if it would be OK to pass my message to her contact at Hull Royal Infirmary.”
The hospital contacted Long on Saturday, fabric was dropped off at her shop on Sunday and was tested in the sewing machines before she cut the patterns for three sizes of gown ready for making prototypes for checking on Monday.
She said: “It’s been a huge effort trying to get people to understand what we can do and tell us what they need.
“Now we face a massive mountain of work with 250 disposable gowns a day and a prototype for the anti-bacterial finished cotton that will be tough, durable and washable.
“We’ve got two people in self-isolation but three on machines, me and an apprentice on trims, the sales guy on quality control and my dad and a customer as couriers.
“We’ve found someone from East Riding College to come in and do the cutting for us. We’re in familiar territory now, working with our own tools on our own machines.”
Shillito said: “The discussion with the MPs was all about how the economy is struggling because of Coronavirus and we took that opportunity to highlight some of the issues facing businesses in Hull city centre, but when we spoke to Gill we also thought it might be helpful to put her in touch.
“We’re absolutely delighted that Diana found a way to help a terrific local business provide a much-needed service.”
Johnson added: “Just before Gill emailed me I had been talking to the local NHS about shortages in PPE and so as soon as I received Gill’s email it felt like serendipity!
“I was really frustrated that Gill had not been able to make any progress after her generous offer to help produce PPE, so I am delighted that it looks like Hull NHS staff will now benefit.”
