Reading College donate much needed PPE equipment to Berkshire Healthcare NHS Foundation Trust

@Activate_Learn has reached out to a local #NHS trust to donate much needed Personal Protective Equipment (PPE) to help combat the COVID-19 crisis.

Reading College has sourced more than 3,600 items of PPE equipment from its Care Skills Suite and will be donating them to Berkshire Healthcare NHS Foundation Trust.

The Care Skills Suite, which was opened in February 2020, is used to train the next generation of nurses and health support workers and is currently unused due to the Government’s decision to close schools and colleges.

Activate Learning recognised there was essential equipment onsite at Reading College that could be put to good use by NHS staff.

Pete Reynolds, Director of Career Pathways for Academic and Professional Studies at Activate Learning, said: “Berkshire Healthcare NHS Foundation Trust provide lots of industry placement opportunities for our students which are valuable to their training and future careers in the NHS.

“We are really pleased that we are able to give back to our wider healthcare community by providing all of this much needed equipment which I know will be put to good use at this time of crisis – we only wish we had more to give.

“Our students know and have worked alongside many of the people at Berkshire Healthcare NHS Foundation Trust who are currently on the frontline, helping to treat those who have been affected by this global pandemic, and I know that they would have wanted us to donate these items too.

“I hope that these will now help to keep our valuable NHS staff safe and well so they can continue to do the outstanding job they’ve been doing.”

Items donated include specialist face masks, scrub and disposable aprons, disinfectant surface wipes, cleaning wipes, hand towels, couch rolls, hand wash, hand gel dispensers, finger oxygen monitors and examination gloves.

Pearly Thomas, Head of Clinical Education at Berkshire Healthcare NHS Foundation Trust said: “Thank you to Reading College, part of Activate Learning, for allowing us to use their PPE stock during the Covid-19 pandemic. “We were finding it difficult to get the supply of PPE in time for emergency clinical training aimed to upskill our staff and support their redeployment to various clinical areas.

“Due to large numbers being shifted to new areas, we need to provide training in multiple sessions every day of the week.

“Most of the PPE we received, will be used to protect clinical staff (nurses/AHPs etc.) during face-to-face clinical training in Bracknell, Reading and Slough community teams, Prospect Park Hospital and West Berkshire Community Hospital.

“It will also keep our trainers safe during clinical skills training that is essential to keep our patients safe. I have been given an inventory of the items and we will be happy to return it when the pandemic is over.”