Grahame Morris MP has tabled an Early Day Motion (EDM) thanking car manufacturer Nissan for repurposing its Sunderland factory for the production of personal protective equipment (PPE) during the covid-19 outbreak.

PPE is still in high demand; the latest survey conducted by the Royal College of Physicians revealed a persistent shortage in the supply of PPE across the NHS. It found that members reporting insufficient access to general PPE had risen from 22% at the beginning of April, to 27% at the end.

Nissan’s Sunderland plant first opened in 1986, and employs approximately 7,000 people. A team of supply chain experts and volunteers have coordinated a parts processing line in the final assembly area, where thousands of individual visor parts and sorted and packed into sets of 125, ready for shipping to the NHS.

The Sunderland plant is now delivering up to 100,000 face visors and 18,000 aprons per week to the NHS.

Nissan’s Production Director Adam Pennick said, “It’s great to be able to play our part in helping to provide the NHS with these visors. Our people are experts in the logistics behind an effective supply chain, and we certainly weren’t short of volunteers for this project.”

The Easington MP’s EDM calls on other companies to follow Nissan’s lead and form a ‘manufacturing army’ to help produce life-saving PPE. It also notes the contribution of Unite the Union in promoting this initiative, and urges the Government to coordinate and facilitate these efforts to ensure maximum output and success.

Grahame Morris MP said, “The expertise of staff and generosity of volunteers at the Sunderland plant have produced extraordinary results. I am immensely grateful for their efforts, and hope that their determination serves as an example for other companies to utilise any spare capacity to help the coronavirus response effort. It is vital that the Government help in coordinating available facilities in order to maximise production of PPE, which remains in very high demand.”