Sports halls at the National Sports Centre in Douglas have been transformed into a centralised storage facility for healthcare materials.

The extra storage is needed to house personal protective equipment (PPE) during the coronavirus crisis.

From here government teams will distribute the equipment to support community healthcare staff across the island.

Stocks of protective equipment have been centralised to ensure they can be monitored and that health and social care staff receive the correct PPE at the right time, to offer the best protection.

Health Minister David Ashford denied as ’scaremongering’ social media claims that healthcare staff did not have sufficient personal protection equipment. He said the right equipment was made available to the right people at the right time, and this was a clinical decision.

His department insists that supplies of PPE continue to be ordered and received, and while worldwide demand is at record levels at present, it continues to work ’relentlessly’ on ensuring there is no shortage in the Isle of Man.

The Department of Health and Social Care said a wide range of measures are in place to ensure health and care staff are protected in their vital work responding to the Covid-19 pandemic.

It follows the latest advice from Public Health England which issued updated guidance last week on the use PPE in relation to inpatient clinical settings, outpatient and community care and ambulance staff, paramedics, first responders and pharmacists.

Staff have been advised what the latest changes mean for them.

Senior infection prevention and control professionals have led specific training.

Sessions have been held in the hospital and in community settings to demonstrate the correct way to put on and take off PPE.

Consultants have visited staff groups around the hospital including housekeepers, porters and nursing staff, to explain best practice and answer queries.