Company carries on life-saving history
A LLANELLI business that can trace its life-saving work to the trenches of the Crimean War is working to ensure that NHS Wales has the supplies it needs in the battle against coronavirus.
For more than 160 years, BCB International has built up knowledge and expertise in developing life-saving and protective equipment for British defence personnel, mariners and adventure seekers operating beyond the comfort zone.
Today, the company has switched productions at its Llanelli-based site, which would normally produce solidified bioethanol fuel products, to the creation of highstrength alcohol hand sanitiser.
In a nod to BCB’S founder, Dr Brown’s Hand Sanitiser is named after Dr. John Collis Browne, who originally created cough medicine that brought relief to British soldiers in the trenches of the Crimean war.
In addition to donating hand sanitiser and PPE equipment to emergency responders and community groups, BCB International has supplied NHS Wales with more than 250,000 litres of hand sanitiser since it first placed an offer to supply Wales’ health services via Life Sciences Hub Wales.
As well as sanitiser products, the company has submitted offers to supply NHS Wales with additional PPE equipment such as gowns, gloves, masks and shields.
The manufacturer has also created portable carry packs containing protective equipment that can be carried by first responders, police and those working to serve communities across Wales.
Andrew Howell, managing director at BCB International, said: “To quote Darwin: ‘It is not the strongest of the species that survives, nor the most intelligent that survives. It is the one that is the most adaptable to change.’
“This virus is very clever, and we need to adapt quickly to it to survive. Speed and innovation is everything.”
The offers made by BCB International are just one example of the numbers of Welsh manufacturers who have responded to the call to support NHS Wales.
The work to unite industry and Wales’s health and care services is being facilitated by Life Sciences Hub Wales, an organisation appointed by Welsh Government as the main point of contact for industry.
Commenting on Welsh industry’s response to coronavirus, Cari-anne Quinn, CEO at Life Sciences Hub Wales, said: “Industry’s response to the national public health emergency has been truly inspiring. BCB International is a great example of both the legacy of innovation that exists in Wales and the desire of businesses to assist in the national effort however they can.
“Since Welsh Government announced Life Sciences Hub Wales as the main point of contact for industry, we have refocussed our efforts in a bid to support health and social care buyers in the management and triage of the high volume of supply offers in response to the current health crisis.
“Our work with industry, NHS Wales and social care has resulted an in efficient and effective approach that helps secure access to safe and legitime products, protecting patients and those who are working on the frontline of our health and social care sectors,” she added, the mental and physical wellbeing rather than immediate back to learning. I think in September it will be about getting children learning ready.
“They will be learning but the whole world has been in a state of chaos and disruption. Children are resilient but we need to have regard to their experience and not just pretend this is a clean slate and move on. If we do that we will leave a lot of children behind.”
There are major logistical issues to be ironed out as well as who to bring back first and how.
On top of this protocols must be drawn up for reporting possible infections and when schools need to either shut or open up to more pupils,
Ms Hughes said.
PPE for teachers who need it, especially those working in special schools and with very young pupils is also being discussed.
One school has told ASCL Cymru it is considering buying thermal imaging equipment to check the temperature of people coming into the building.
“Schools are normally very busy and noisy with children shoulder to shoulder in the playground. I don’t believe it will be like that. We are going to have a quieter schools with social distancing.
“There will be a sense of school and a sense that schools are coming back but it will be a version not equal to what it was before they closed in March.”
Since schools were ordered to shut in March a number of “hub” schools have remained open for children of key workers and vulnerable pupils.
Education minister Kirsty Williams has said she won’t set an “arbitrary” date for when more pupils will return to school in Wales, although Westminster has set a date of June 1 in England.
The Welsh Government has been meeting weekly with unions and has been in discussions with public health experts and local education authorities to plan how and when to open schools to more pupils.
A Welsh Government spokesperson said: “Whilst our schools have remained closed to many children, we’ve been working with unions, teachers, scientists, public health experts, education providers, and local authorities to consider the options for the next phase for schools and settings.
“Our schools and teachers have worked tirelessly to continue teaching children and young people remotely.
“As part of our schools phased re-opening, this could see a combination of remote learning and face to face, but we’ll continue to work with unions and teachers to ensure what is being offered is safe, secure and of high quality.”