In an effort to ensure local health-care providers have the supplies they need to help defend against COVID-19, Oxford County has issued a call for community donations of personal protective equipment (PPE).
Items needed include face masks, latex-free gloves, hand sanitizer, disinfectant wipes, N95 respirators, shield masks and goggles, and disposable gowns.
As part of a newly developed response strategy to tackle the PPE shortage, Oxford County Paramedic Services and Oxford County Community Health Centre will be stockpiling the donations to distribute to hospitals, long-term care homes, primary care physicians, and other health-care professionals as needed.
"We have already seen some positive results from the community drive and would encourage people to keep donating," said Ben Addley, chief of the paramedic service. "Those giving have ranged from individual households that purchased PPE in the past for one reason or another to businesses that used PPE in their operations that don't currently have as high a demand or need for it."
Oxford paramedics have also been tasked with managing and distributing the area's share of incoming provincial protective medical equipment to health-care facilities across the county.
"We received our first shipment through the Healthcare Materials Management Group out of London this week and have already begun distributing that to some of the health-care providers," said Addley. "The provincial stockpile that we are helping to distribute is basically for that emergency need, when people haven't been able to get it through their normal vendors and need a few days of supplies to keep them operational."
Those with personal protective equipment to donate can drop the items off at one of three locations:
- The blue bin at Oxford County Paramedic Services on Mill Street in Woodstock. Use the back entrance off of Sales Drive.
- The drop-off bin at the east, rear loading dock of Alexandra Hospital on Noxon Street in Ingersoll. Monday to Friday 8 a.m. to 3 p.m.
- The yellow bin across the street from Tillsonburg District Memorial Hospital on Rolph Street in Tillsonburg.