A Preston firm has donated hundreds of items of personal protective equipment (PPE) to help protect frontline NHS workers battling the coronavirus pandemic.

Westinghouse Springfields delivered 160 pairs of eye protection, 50 pairs of goggles, 70 disposable hooded overalls and 1,000 pairs of gloves on Sunday.

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Production worker Rob Hunt, who made the delivery, said: “Staff were extremely pleased with this donation and welcome any other donations. They said it lifts the morale of the nurses at this very difficult time, when the demand for PPE is very high.

“We’d encourage other Preston companies to donate their spare PPE. There must be lots of factories out there at the moment with surplus stuff.”

Meanwhile the NHS in central Lancashire has released a statement thanking local businesses and residents for their donations of equipment and supplies, saying they have been “humbled by the kindness and generosity of the community”.

A spokesperson for the Chorley and South Ribble and Greater Preston clinical commissioning groups (CCGs) said: “We continue to work around the clock, seven days a week, to respond to the pandemic and are hugely appreciative of the many generous offers of help and support from the local community.

“It is well recognised that making sure health and social care staff continue to have access to adequate supplies of PPE is vitally important.

“Therefore it would be very much appreciated if any other members of the local community wishing to donate spare PPE or other supplies that they aren’t using due to the current UK lockdown measures could please contact liz.crossland@nhs.net or call 07557 582391 in the first instance.”

Read more: Nurses at Royal Preston Hospital claim they were given ‘just flimsy masks and gloves’ to treat coronavirus patients

Supplies that are of most benefit to frontline health and social care staff are:

• face masks (N95, FFP2 and FFP3 standards)
• disposable aprons
• disposable coverall suits
• face masks and visors
• plastic goggles
• shoe covers
• alcohol-based hand sanitiser
• liquid soap
• paper hand towels

A shortage of parts needed to manufacture alcohol hand gel means donations of the following items would also be hugely appreciated:

• raw materials
• alcohol
• gelling agent (thickener)
• bottles and caps

Read more: Preston woman calls for rare conditions to be added to the NHS shielded patients list

Read more: The Preston restaurants feeding our NHS heroes during the coronavirus crisis

Has your company donated any PPE? Let us know in the comments.