Farnell, Leeds Help with PPE Shortage

Technology distributor Farnell helps tackle the shortage of Personal Protective Equipment (PPE) on the NHS front line.

04:45 13 May 2020

Leeds-based technology distributor Farnell is working with a number of firms to provide medical frontliners working in hospitals and care homes around the UK with more Protective Personal Equipment (PPE).

 

The firm has donated over £40,000 of 3D printing equipment to companies that develop essential devices. They include a customer in Leeds who has turned his home into a visor manufacturing plant to produce face shields for pharmacies, hospitals and doctors. Farnell has also teamed up with a Government-backed coalition of businesses that have repurposed their production capabilities to design and manufacture new ventilators. 

 

Mathew Thorpe, Farnell's regional sales director for the UK, Ireland and Benelux, said: "Demand for components for medical devices has surged. 

 

If you consider the amount of ventilators that are needed globally, demand outstrips the supply that any one distributor will have in stock. 

 

"Our product and sales teams are working very closely with suppliers to access additional stock to fulfil orders and support customers as they produce medical equipment at scale." 

 

Fraser Forbes, Farnell's director of European operations, added: "In an ever-changing world, Farnell in Leeds has continued to support orders for electronic components since the UK lockdown kicked in at the end of March. Working with the staff, we have systematically developed safer ways of working to accommodate social distancing, putting safety ahead of productivity."