A collaborative project to make 5,000 sets of scrubs for frontline staff in NHS Tayside has been highly commended at a national award ceremony.
The team, which included NHS Tayside, local businesses, the University of Dundee and community volunteers, was nominated for the COVID-19 Outstanding Response Award at the GO Awards Scotland in recognition of their efforts.
In the first months of the pandemic, NHS Tayside asked all patient-facing staff who usually wore their own clothes, such as doctors and consultants, to move to using scrubs in order to minimise the current increased risk of infection and cross-contamination.
To meet the huge increase in demand for scrubs, NHS Tayside worked with local textile company Halley Stevensons to produce large volumes of fabric at its Dundee-based factory in a bespoke colour called Tayside Teal. This fabric was used to produce 4,000 pairs of scrubs.
Halley Stevensons also donated a large quantity of the fabric for use by more than 500 community sewers. Staff and student volunteers worked from a small industrial hub set up in the University of Dundee library to produce scrubs and make up ‘scrub packs’ using pattern pieces pre-cut by Kirriemuir manufacturer J&D Wilkie. Local people who offered to sew scrubs at home were able to collect the packs from the hub and drop off completed sets. This combined effort of university and home sewers delivered another 1,000 pairs of scrubs.
Once the scrubs target had been reached, the volunteer sewers turned their focus to face coverings, making approximately 10,000 reusable masks for staff across Tayside to use when in public spaces.
Consultant surgeon Dr Rodney Mountain, who helped organise the scrubs project, said, “On behalf of our staff I would once again like to send our thanks and appreciation to our university colleagues, industrial partners and every volunteer who contributed to this amazing effort.”