Arco Highly Commended in The IHEEM Healthcare Supplier of The Year Award

Arco has been 'Highly Commended' in the prestigious IHEEM Healthcare Supplier of the Year Award, in recognition of its work supplying respiratory protection, face fitting services and training to NHS Scotland during the COVID-19 pandemic.

In August 2020, while health services were struggling to source personal protective equipment (PPE), Arco was awarded a contract to supply essential PPE and face fitting services to NHS Scotland. Since then, Arco has supplied: 230 million surgical masks, 7 million visors, 3,000 days of face fitting and training and 3 million FFP3 respirator masks. This support was successfully implemented through 50 managed local distribution hubs, providing PPE to over 2,700 sites.

Andy Owen, Head of Healthcare at Arco, said:

"We are proud to be 'Highly Commended' in the Healthcare Supplier of the Year Award category at this year's IHEEM Awards. This is a great achievement that recognises our support to the NHS in keeping healthcare workers, patients and visitors in Scotland safe and protected during very challenging times.

"Arco has a history of supporting the healthcare sector in times of emergency, including providing a strong response to the Ebola outbreak in 2014-2016, where we supplied hundreds of thousands of hazard suits and visors to frontline workers deployed to West Africa.

"When the COVID-19 pandemic began, we were able to use our experience and knowledge to support the healthcare sector with the critical protection they needed."

Discussing Arco's work with NHS Scotland, Clare Casciani, Health and Safety Advisor at NHS Lothian, said:

"Arco worked with hospital teams across Scotland to coordinate a face-fit testing programme, ensuring respiratory protective equipment (RPE) wearers were kept safe with correctly fitting FFP3 respiratory masks.

"Frontline staff were supported with over 3,000 days of Fit2Fit approved on-site testing, across day and night shifts. Arco also organised training for over 250 NHS Scotland staff members so that they could run their own face fit testing. They provided bespoke fit testing training days and continued coaching and mentoring staff so they themselves could be trained to Fit2Fit standards. So far, nine NHS staff have since gone on to pass their Fit2Fit examination. Without Arco's support, we would not have been able to achieve this at all."

As the UK's leading safety products and services company, Arco supports the healthcare sector with a wide range of products and services.

For more information, Click Here.