The vital equipment has been donated to help protect staff at a local hospital.
Frontline NHS staff at Chesterfield Royal Hospital have received PPE kit donated by the University of Derby to help them in their work treating coronavirus patients.
The University has provided the kit which was to have been used by students at the St Helena campus in Chesterfield, which is closed for the rest of the academic year, along with the University’s other sites in Derby and Buxton.
Technicians from the University’s College of Health and Social Care have collected boxes of medical gloves, aprons, wipes, cleaning materials, and alcohol gels, all of which is ordinarily used for teaching student nurses and allied healthcare professionals in Chesterfield.
Healthcare unions report a national shortage of PPE across the country, with some healthcare workers being forced to care for patients on specialist COVID-19 wards “without any protection at all”.
Professor Kathryn Mitchell DL, Vice-Chancellor of the University of Derby, said: “We are all too aware of the severely testing conditions that our NHS staff are dealing with as they help people diagnosed with COVID-19.
“As a civically-engaged University, we want to make as full as contribution as we can to help, and donating this equipment to a local hospital is just one of the ways in which we are doing so.
“Many of our nursing and allied healthcare students are already on the frontline, working in hospitals alongside experienced professionals to provide the support the health service needs at this hugely challenging time.
“With the University moving to delivering all HE teaching online for the remainder of the academic year, it is only right that equipment that would have been for the use of students is supplied to hospital staff who need it to ensure that they themselves are properly protected against the risk of contracting and spreading coronavirus.
“The work of our technicians is so valuable to our students and teaching staff, and this proactive contribution to the crisis speaks volumes about their knowledge, specialism and desire to help however and whenever they can.”
A spokesperson for the Chesterfield Royal Hospital said: “We’ve had so many donations and messages of support from individuals, local companies and our health and education partners which has given all of our hard-working colleagues a much-needed boost.
“We work very closely with the University of Derby and we’re delighted to be able to make use of the equipment that would have been used to train some of the students. They will certainly be put to good use and we’d like to thank everyone at the university for their continued support and for helping our incredible frontline staff in this way.”