Thousands of frontline NHS workers in Newcastle have been provided with new infection control laundry bags in a bid to stop the spread of Covid-19 from the workplace.
Some 5,000 water-soluble bags have been supplied to staff fighting the disease at Newcastle’s Royal Victoria Infirmary.
It means workers can remove their clothes in the workplace, take them home safely and put them straight into the washing machine without exposing their homes to the virus.
The environmentally friendly infection control bags dissolve in the washing machine on a 60C wash cycle.
Some 46,400 bags have been donated to health and social care providers across the UK including to the University Hospitals Birmingham NHS Foundation Trust, Norfolk’s James Paget University Hospital NHS Foundation Trust and Leeds Teaching Hospitals.
The bags are made using Hydropol™, an innovative new polymer technology which is designed to be water-soluble, non-toxic and marine safe.
They have been distributed free of charge by sustainable polymer technology company Aquapak, which makes the Hydropol™ pellets and supplies them to packaging converters who produce the bags.
It is understood there is scope for the production of more bags in and outside the UK to ensure they are received by those who need them working on the NHS frontline.
Aquapak CEO Mark Lapping said: “In this time of national crisis we were keen to do whatever we could to help our fantastic key workers.
“Over the coming weeks it is incumbent on all of us in business to do whatever we can to support frontline workers delivering world class care to our most vulnerable people”.
