Shrewsbury firm's new web service connects people with millions of items of PPE

About three weeks ago, Shoothill launched ppeexchange.co.uk, a service to connect independent, voluntary and public sector buyers with suppliers of PPE during the Covid-19 pandemic.

More than two billion pieces of PPE are currently available on the site, with a national requirement of over 100 million pieces of PPE needed for carers.

It comes after hundreds of British companies have reached out to the Government offering to provide PPE to frontline care providers who are struggling to find a way to distribute it to those who need it most.

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Over 1,000 buyers, including care homes and care firms, and 1,000 suppliers have now signed up to the service.

Peter Fahy, director of adult services at Coventry City Council, said: “One of the biggest challenges facing ​the social care sector during Covid has been accessing PPE. The work that Shoothill have done in ​rapidly designing, building ​and launching an online portal to match up that demand with suppliers of PPE has been a lesson to us all in the value of ​innovation and the ability of technology to start to solve seemingly intractable problems.”

PPE Exchange allows key and frontline workers across the independent, voluntary and public sectors to post their requirements on the website, which are then fulfilled by manufacturers and suppliers of vital safety equipment like gloves, visors and aprons.

Rod Plummer, managing director of Shoothill, said: “We understood that there was a national crisis when it came to PPE shortage and that we had the software capabilities to launch a service that could help save lives. We got the site up and running in a matter of days and since then we have been inundated with requests for PPE.”