University partnership helps source PPE for community healthcare providers

Working with Ten-D Innovations (Shanghai), The University of Buckingham is proud to be supporting the fight against Covid-19 by donating thousands of face masks to local medical facilities. The Swan practice in Buckingham is just one of these centres, and recently received 5,000 face masks to better enable them to safely see and treat patients.

Undoubtedly one of the largest healthcare issues to have impacted those across the globe during 2020 is Covid-19. When the pandemic started to become prominent across the UK it was clear that Personal Protective Equipment (PPE) would be in demand, and this is still an issue today, with some hospitals claiming a backlog in operations due to the lack of PPE available.

Debbie Ratu, Practice Manager at The Swan Practice said, ‘The Swan Practice would like to extend enormous thanks to the University for their support throughout the Covid-19 pandemic. Like all health and social care services we have had to implement different ways of working over a short change period and this has meant our partners in the community working alongside us to enable our population to remain safe, be cared for at home and via different media i.e. video and telephone consultations.

The generous donation of the facemasks helped us immensely during a time when we were struggling to source enough protection for staff and patients. We have been very lucky with volunteers helping in a number of ways, and it has demonstrated the strength of the community spirit within Buckingham and the surrounding villages. We hope that we can retain this sense of togetherness moving forward and that we have learned to work much closely together.’

Hongbo Du, the co-ordinator of the Ten-D Buckingham Research and Development Centre comments, “Although Covid-19 separates us physically, it binds us ever closer in our thoughts. We are very pleased to take a small part in helping the local communities. Public health is very much relevant to the research work in our School. We are exploiting advanced technologies such as artificial intelligence to bring about even greater health benefits to society.”

The University is also grateful to Ten-D for providing some extra supplies of disposable face masks and gloves for University students and staff, ready in preparation for the reopening of campus.

The University expects the majority of campus facilities to be back open by its Autumn Term as long as government guidelines allow. A number of facilities have already started to open with new regulations in place, and further buildings and services are being prepared as quickly and safely as possible.

The Swan Practice provide dedicated GP clinics for University students. These clinics are held every week day during term time between 10am and 12.00pm at the main Students First building.