After the UK government failed to agree to buy visors and PPE useful to face Covid pandemic, tens of thousands of visors sit waiting to be exported abroad. The vital PPE kit has been made by a Nottingham firm to help frontline medics.
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Boss Jon Tolley, who needs a deal to save jobs, said: “We’ve had nurses in tears”. Printers Prime Group transformed its operation and took on 30 extra staff ready to make up to one million visors a month or 35,000 a day. But the firm is frustrated that despite contacting officials a month ago, no orders have been placed.
It has already delivered 350,000 to frontline NHS and care staff here for free or at cost. Mr. Tolley revealed they had been unable to get a big NHS order after investing £250,000 on materials. Even he has been dealing with individual NHS trusts for orders of 1,000 to 30,000 visors. There will be 100,000 in stock without allocated buyers, which could end up being sold abroad by the end of this week. Jon said: “I have the material to make another 500,000. I have to decide whether to sell that material to Europe as there is demand.
They are already making our designs.” He decided to make the visors after his wife, an intensive care nurse, told him of shortages. The nurses asking for help was desperate. He also adds that he already told the government to come to him rather than import from abroad. The Government says it has had more than 8,000 offers of support from suppliers of PPE. Rishi Sunak, the Chancellor, said the Government would “pursue every possible option” to secure PPE for the UK.