Coronavirus: Volunteers needed to help make scrubs for Peterborough and Cambs health workers

The ScrubHub is a volunteer group making the special hygienic clothing to address what it calls a “national shortage” during the Covid-19 pandemic.

The group is accepting donations via a GoFundMe page and also asking for anyone “very competent” in sewing to volunteer.

The Cambridgeshire ScrubHub, which started on April 5, said it has already received more than £2,000 in donations, has 120 volunteers and is receiving requests from individual NHS staff, GP surgeries and a bulk order of 100 sets of scrubs from the Cambridgeshire and Peterborough NHS Foundation Trust.

Jess Marshall, who helped set up the Cambridgeshire ScrubHub with Catherine Bell, says there is “desperation” for more of the personal protective equipment.

“We have identified that there is a national shortage, and I think the longer that we have been doing this we have seen the desperation for scrubs,” she said. “We have had NHS workers reaching out to us now for help.

“We are now feeling that responsibility because we feel it’s an area where we can help, where we can provide support to our NHS workers to protect them. Because, unfortunately, they have been failed.

“We feel that now is the best time to step in and provide help where we can.”

Donations will go towards buying the fabric, which will then be sewn to make scrubs by volunteers. Any funds not spent will be donated to the NHS, Jess said.

“That is going to be the main thing that is going to keep us up and running and be able to continue to make scrubs and continue to get them out to NHS workers,” she added.

The group is looking for “very competent” sewing skills to make sure the scrubs last, but there is also a need for drivers and other volunteers for roles which do not require a high degree of competency in sewing.

Many healthcare workers who would not normally wear scrubs now need to do so owing to the Covid-19 pandemic, creating shortages.

The Cambridgeshire and Peterborough NHS Foundation Trust put out a call on April 9, appealing to community groups making scrubs for supplies.

The trust said more of its frontline staff now require the clothing, including those at the Cavell Centre in Peterborough, and at Fulbourn Hospital near Cambridge, where staff would otherwise wear their own clothes to work.

The ScrubHub is a nationwide network, which started in Hackney, East London, following a request from an NHS worker in the area.

Healthcare workers looking for individual sets of scrubs are also encouraged to get in touch.

To donate go to gofundme.com/f/cambridgeshire-scrubhubmaking-scrubs-for-the-nhs.

The Cambridgeshire ScrubHub can be contacted by email at [email protected]

Ben Hatton, Local Democracy Reporting Service