MONDAY, 8 JUNE, 2020

Photographs attached: 1 – Tracey Caldwell (left) and Thelma Baxter from Tayside Linen Services with some of the Tayside Teal scrubs

2 – Consultant Dr Elaine Henry wearing scrubs produced by the ‘NHS Scotland For the Love of Scrubs’ group

Team effort delivers thousands of scrubs for NHS Tayside staff

A collaborative project between NHS Tayside, local industry, the University of Dundee and community volunteers has delivered almost 6000 sets of scrubs for frontline staff.

NHS Tayside asked all patient-facing staff who usually wear 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.

Around 5000 pairs of scrubs were required to supplement the 6,500 previously in use across Tayside and this increase in demand was mirrored right across the UK, leading to a national shortage of scrubs.

To ensure that enough sets of scrubs could be sourced, 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 community sewers. Staff and student volunteers worked from a small industrial hub set up in the Dundee University 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 1000 pairs of scrubs.

NHS Tayside was also very grateful to receive more than 700 additional sets made by professionals from the fashion, theatre and costume industries and local sewers working with the Facebook group ‘NHS Scotland For the Love of Scrubs’.

NHS Tayside Medical Director Professor Peter Stonebridge said, “We are so grateful to everyone who came together as part of this project to support us. It was such a team effort and we are really impressed, not only with the amount of work that has gone into this, but also with the high quality of the scrubs produced.

“Thank you to Halley Stevensons, J&D Wilkie, Dundee University, For the Love of Scrubs, and all the people at home who put their fantastic sewing skills to use for us. It’s very much appreciated.”

Contact:

Louise Wilson

NHS Tayside Communications

(01382) 740718