Leeds hospitals benefit from donation of water-soluble infection control bags by manufacturing firm

Birmingham-based Aquapak has so far provided around 12,000 of the laundry bags to the city's main NHS Trust, allowing staff to safely wash their work clothing after returning home.

A total of 46,000 of the bags have been supplied free of charge to healthcare providers in the Midlands, Yorkshire and East Anglia.

The bags, which dissolve on a 60C washing cycle, enable workers to remove clothing in the workplace, take it home safely and put it straight into the washing machine without exposing their homes to the virus.

As well as providing bags to the University Hospitals Birmingham NHS Foundation Trust, Aquapak has also distributed them to workers at several other West Midlands hospitals and the Acorns Children's Hospice.

Supplies of the bags have also been given to staff at Newcastle's Royal Victoria Infirmary, several NHS sites in the Norfolk area including the Queen Elizabeth Hospital in King's Lynn, and the Leeds Teaching Hospitals trust.

In the East Midlands more than 1,000 bags have been supplied to the Treetops Hospice and GP surgeries across Nottingham.

The bags are made using Hydropol, a new polymer technology which is designed to be water-soluble, non-toxic and marine safe.

Aquapak chief executive 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 front-line workers delivering world-class care to our most vulnerable people."

Lisa Stalley Green, executive chief nurse at the University Hospitals Birmingham NHS Foundation Trust, said: "On behalf of University Hospitals Birmingham I would like to thank Aquapak for their kind donation of laundry bags to our front-line staff.

"I am so proud and full of admiration for the staggering and ongoing effort from all of our staff to treat and protect our patients, our staff and all our families in the battle against coronavirus."

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