St John Healthcare has ensured that care homes and people with extra care needs living in the community have continued to receive the healthcare supplies they need during the current lockdown.
St John Healthcare is the commercial arm of the St John Guernsey charity and proceeds from sales at the shop are used to support the charitable community services and other aspects of the work of the St John in Guernsey, including the Emergency Ambulance Service. The operation also supports the Health & Social Care Committees Partnership of Purpose and the principle of the Supported Living & Aging Well Strategy of the States of Guernsey.
Supplying healthcare products is an essential service for islanders, so although the shop at the Rohais temporarily closed its doors to customers the shop remained open for telephone order and island-wide deliveries to meet the needs of the community.
Staff who normally work in the shop or as part of the Stannah Stairlift and Stiltz Home Lift installation team have been redeployed to answer phone calls and deliver products to care homes and private addresses. St John Healthcare supplies everything from face masks, gloves and other Personal Protective Equipment (PPE) to hygiene and sanitary products, as well as mobility equipment and accessibility aids.
Commercial Manager Gina Gooding said: “We were well prepared to switch our operation to a delivery only service, so we were able to respond quickly to ensure that the care homes and our other customers continued to receive an uninterrupted service.”
“The service we provide is an essential lifeline for many people, so it has been our priority to ensure we can continue operating in a way that is safe for our staff and customers as well as being efficient and prompt. Our phone lines were incredibly busy, especially in the first couple of days of lockdown and I am grateful to our customers for their patience and support during these unusual times”
St John Healthcare is also supplying gloves, face masks and other PPE to the Emergency Ambulance Service, which has helped to ensure the frontline clinicians have the necessary stocks of PPE available when they need it.
Although the installation of stairlifts and ‘through ceiling’ home lifts has temporarily been suspended due to the current public health restrictions, as agents for Stannah and Stiltz in the Channel Islands emergency repairs and essential maintenance has continued where lone working and social distancing can be complied with. The service team are working in line with the latest public health guidance.
Gina Gooding added: “Once Guernsey starts to move slowly out of lockdown we will review our operations, as we did last time and look at how we can continue to provide a safe and efficient service while resuming some of the activities which we have had to put on hold, such as the installation of Stannah Stairlifts and Stiltz Homelifts”.
