New website connects buyers and suppliers of PPE

For providers of assistive technologies services requiring PPE to carry out operations safely, a new website is helping those in need of personal protective equipment (PPE) to connect with suppliers during the coronavirus pandemic.

PPEexchange.co.uk helps buyers from any sector – private, public or voluntary – to post their PPE requirements on the platform which can then be fulfilled by suppliers for items such as gloves, masks, hand sanitiser and aprons.

Access to PPE has been on the major challenges across the health and social care system since the outbreak of the virus and will continue to play an integral role as lockdown restrictions are gradually eased over the coming months.

The site was quickly created and deployed by Shropshire software specialists Shoothill and is available to use for free for both buyers and suppliers of equipment.

Rod Plummer, Managing Director of Shoothill, said: “We wanted to do something to help and realised we had the capacity and knowhow to attempt this. We got the site up and running in a matter of days and since then we have been inundated with requests for PPE.

“Across the country, supplies of PPE are proving scarce, in short supply and at times non- existent. We have heard of care homes, where our many vulnerable friends and family are housed, and home care agencies providing the service in the community, having to resort to improvised masks and aprons fashioned from bin bags.

“Mobilising PPE to get to the frontlines is essential to ensure the safest possible working conditions and critically slow the wave of infection and save lives. Time is of the essence, with shortages and bottlenecks putting more and more people at risk, every effort is needed to tackle shortages.”