‘We feel we’re doing our bit to try to help in this emergency’ - Rehab team busy making PPE

Staff at Rehab Enterprises in Navan have joined the country’s frontline workers in the fight against Covid-19 through the creation of vital Personal Protective Equipment (PPE).

Sarah Flanagan, manager of Rehab Enterprises in Navan, said she began to receive excited texts from her staff members when they saw footage of the protective hoods and suits on RTÉ news - the same items they had been producing at the factory for many years.

Rehab Enterprises is Ireland’s largest single non-government employer of people with disabilities, employing over 150 with disabilities across the country. In Navan 10 of the 14 staff are people with disabilities who have been producing these items for a number of years.

“At the site in Navan, work has always felt fulfilling. Now, the massive international coverage on the importance of PPE for frontline workers has really brought it home to us,” said Sarah. “It suddenly make us all feel like we’re doing our bit to try to help in this national emergency. We couldn’t ask for a better team to work with. Productivity has gone up, as staff are acutely aware of how important it is to keep the site open and to service the frontline workers and the pharmaceutical industry,” she added.

Staff at the site in Mullaghaboy in Navan are an experienced team of machinists producing robust PPE for use in critical environments. They create hoods with sealed seams for Intensive Care Units, as well as shoe covers, aprons, and covers for machinery.

The team are producing an 18-inch sleeve to protect frontline workers’ over their aprons “to give a much better protected arm”, says Sarah. The PPEs final destination will be on the frontline, ensuring healthcare is delivered during this time of crisis.

Normal work practices have had to be adapted at the Enterprises sites, to make sure everyone adheres to social distancing, with staggered work breaks and adhering to all of the HSE and Department of Health guidelines.

Sarah says that despite the new strict controls in place, staff are adapting well. “Everyone’s playing an absolute blinder. I’m very proud,” she said.

Rehab Enterprises is the social enterprises arm of the Rehab Group, the charity set up in 1949 to provide employment to people recovering from Tuberculosis (TB) - the public health crisis of the time. Today, the aim of Rehab Enterprises is to provide employment and supports to people with disabilities.

Cecelia Ryan from Navan, an employee of Rehab Enterprises for 23 years, says “I feel proud to be doing this really important work because it's needed to keep people safe. My sister is a nurse so this means a lot to me”.

Bernadette Connor, employed by Rehab Enterprises for over 27 years, says: “I lay out the patterns, cut them and give them to production. It feels safe to be here because of the social distancing and all the cleaning that is happening here”.

Sarah concluded: “Frontline health workers are literally taking their lives in their hands every day. We’re only a very small drop in the ocean of what’s needed to protect them. I’m glad that we can do something practical to help.”