January 2021
It’s all about looking forward as we begin 2021! New beginnings, a time to focus on the positives - if at all possible – we have 2 vaccines in circulation and a 3rd on the way; strict measures in place to control the spread, so there is good reason to hope that 2021 will turn the tide on this terrible virus.
Catch up on what has happened since the last newsletter here.
Rosie and the Scrubbery achieve fame on Oxford Street!
This is Rosie and her best friend under the lights in Oxford Street – it was freezing cold and the only thing moving were the buses that kept blocking the shot – but perseverance paid off. For those of you who may not know the story, Rosie was nominated as a hero of 2020, and of all the nominees she was selected as one of the handful to have her name in the Christmas lights in Oxford Street. It's all good PR for the cause. This is, of course, a reflection on the outstanding team supporting all of the Scrubbery’s activities.
On the back of that we thought you might like to know a little more about our illustrious Rosie. Born in New Zealand she travelled across to the UK aged 21, and studied Garment Production and Design at the London College of Fashion, and Fashion Illustration at Central St Martins. She has since worked in costume for theatre, film and television, been in charge of the commercial studio at the Royal School of Needlework, and many other roles in commercial and bespoke garment production. Her specialism is history of dress and embroidery; knowledge that she applies practically to art installation for museums and mounting for exhibition. Ultimately when the world returns to some sort of normality, Rosie would like return to her PhD research on the eighteenth-century embroidery trade in London.
In January 2020, as a result of her daughter being a junior doctor and listening to the news from around the world, Rosie was alerted to and worried by the potential crisis looming regarding Covid 19. On the 23rd of January, as Wuhan locked down, she was talking to a friend in New Zealand who said he was concerned about the virus coming there, because of the large number of Chinese tourists. It occurred to Rosie then that the UK was equally at risk. She was already looking at the issue of adequate scrub provision, alerted by the problems her daughter had in getting scrubs of the right size and fit. Rosie researched scrub design and solicited junior doctors for their input. She then designed a pattern for scrubs as simple as possible to construct and also to meet changed requirements. The scrubs have no pockets on the back trouser but instead two patch pockets on the front large enough to fit a phone and able to hold up to 5 pagers at any one time. The trouser pockets have a small opening so that locker keys don’t fall out. The top has 2 hip pockets and a breast pocket, side vents and a V-neck yoke. In other words she made a design that was fit for purpose, based on what medics actually needed. This is the pattern used at the Scrubbery.
At the same time the news from China and Italy confirmed an imminent pandemic. Only A&E and Surgery units (about 20% of hospital staff) usually wear scrubs, and now most would need them, therefore there would be a massive spike in demand that probably could not be fulfilled. In February she asked Bernie, the bookings manager at her church, if they could use the facilities there to cut out and make scrubs. She created pattern templates in card for XS, S, M, L, and XL scrubs and worked out the lay design (how many pattern pieces could be fitted onto the cloth for maximum efficiency and least waste) on the floor in the Lancaster Hall at St. Mary’s Church, Putney. It could accommodate 9.3 metres of cloth, and hence all our lays are still done on that measurement to this day.
Hymn books holding down the pattern cards on the Lay Plan. Image by kind permission of Broni-Lloyd Edwards
She researched which industrial cutter would work best, where to get it from to ensure customer support going forward, researched cloth suppliers, as well as funding the first cloth purchase. The fledgling Scrubbery took flight! It was set up as a charity under the charitable arm of Parish Action in the Parish of Putney. Rosie’s “bubble”, Christopher, Raphael and Alex, all came to do the first lay, cutting and bundling of kits. By the beginning of March 2020 Rosie was more or less permanently installed in the church, continuing to cut on her hands and knees for the next 5 months!
Using social media and personal contacts Rosie reached out to the parishioners of Putney, the Rotary Club and Women’s Institute, and For the Love of Scrubs, from which a team of volunteers assembled, and a manufacturing operation began to emerge. One of the most stalwart supporters, Tracey, even stumbled upon the Scrubbery by accident and stayed to help. The rest, as they say, is history, and here we are 1 year later to the day carrying on with this crucial work.
Rosie found the time to become the National Co-Ordinator of Scrubs for St George's University Hospital Trust, and the Royal Brompton and Harefield NHS Hospital Trust. She had contact with The Royal Hospital for Neuro Disability and Kings College Hospital; Genevieve (Rosie’s daughter) and Jack (Genevieve’s now husband) also helped to spread the word within the hospitals they were seconded to. Word was out – now procurement officers email, use social media in the first instance or phone Rosie direct for help. Over 18,000 items, including sets of scrubs, face masks, laundry bags and gowns have been supplied, enabling so many hospitals and medical personnel to be protected in the first wave of the pandemic, and now we continue on with the second.
Wave 2 as of Jan 16th 2021 : Vaccine Clinics and Hot Hubs in Wandsworth Borough.
The Scrubbery was contacted by Primary Care Network Wandsworth, because they are in the process of setting up GP-led Hot Hubs across the borough – to diagnose and triage coronavirus (Covid-19) patients who are not in hospital. Some Hubs are at GP surgeries and others are borough wide. They offer daytime, evening and weekend sessions. These Hubs are in the main staffed by GP practices in the borough. Additionally, not all the people making the assessments would have traditionally had sets of scrubs – so hence an immediate need that The Scrubbery has helped to fulfil.
We are also working with the mushrooming Vaccine Clinics that come under the Wandsworth GP Federation – there are 6 of these clinics with more in the pipeline (9 in total for January). For them we have supplied 220 sets of scrubs so far for the 6 operational clinics.
January’s Heroes
Our first heartfelt thanks must go to the Bank of England – particularly to Paul Buckingham and his team – who got the heating working at the squash courts – what a difference it has made and how timely. Rosie now only wears 1 pair of trousers and 2 jumpers – in case any of you were wondering about the cause of her sudden weight loss – it’s down to less layers of clothing.
Secondly a big thank you to James and Gordon, who gave up their time to come in late one evening pre Christmas, to put together the wooden shelving racking system which now houses all the crates of threads, material, scraps, equipment etc that used to live scattered over the floors – we have never been so organised!
Wellbeing Bags – how you can help
We are starting a new initiative at the Scrubbery, having heard that morale amongst overstretched staff in hospitals is low. We would like to make up some well-being packs of goodies nestled in Scrubbery-made drawstring bags. For those of you who don’t sew but would love to help we are accepting donations of quality items suitable for these packs. The need is great, St. George’s University Hospital are already giving out about 100 packs a week across their sites and we would like to target a number of the other hospital trusts we work with. Individual donations welcome but we are also looking for people with corporate or business contacts to help with the volume needed.
Examples of small luxury items (for men and women) include:
Handwritten thank you cards
Small boxes of chocolates
Face cream
Hand cream
Selection of teas or coffees, reusable "Keep" cups
Luxury toiletries – bath and shower gel, bath bombs, face masks, foot masks etc
Vouchers
Small scented candles
Deliveries to the Scrubbery at the Bank of England Sports Centre by appointment. Address any queries to scrubbery.stitch@gmail.com
Visitors this month:
Fleur Anderson came by the Scrub Hub before Christmas to offer her continued support – emotional and practical. We are indebted to her for her ongoing interest and guidance. She is still working with Rosie to set up a meeting with the Government Procurement Dept to find a sustainable way of making scrubs in the UK.
Clergy from the Parish of Putney.
We were delighted that Rev. Jonathan Haynes and Rev. Dr. Daniel Trott each came separately and spent time with Rosie to see the work that is being undertaken, the benefits of parochial care and people having a safe space to come to work, with a job to do and a purpose to their days. They saw how the Scrubbery supports the community. This is church in a modern context.
December’s Milestones
5 more Vaccine Clinics had boxes of scrubs, headbands, and bags delivered including Elborough St Surgery and the Covid Vaccine Clinic at St Barnabas in Southfields.
Additional sets were delivered to the Mayfield GP Practice, Junction at Bridge Lane and Oxford Road, to name just a few.
We delivered to Renal units including Hayes, Brent, Ealing, Charing Cross, the Home Therapies Team, Live Kidney Donor Team, Auchi, Watford Renal PIU Department, as well as outpatients and the Renal Rapid Assessment Team.
Regenerate Rise collected their first 100 face masks.
Looking forward & thank you…
We can’t predict demand, or what we can produce as a team, but we do know that there will be more vaccine clinics opening up; that the scrubs provided already will not last forever due to continual washing and laundering; and we have new medical facilities reaching out to us – like the breast feeding wards at the Chelsea and Westminster Hospital.
The need is not going away any time soon – THANK YOU to all the team, you are all invaluable, and make such a difference. As if proof is needed here is Sarah Illić from West London Kidney Patients’ Association sharing photos of scrubs delivered to her teams – we will let her say it in her own words:
“We were thrilled that The Scrubbery were able and willing to help us get these orders fulfilled by supplying fabric and the help of their volunteers and without them it would not have been possible and we will be making a donation to cover the cost of the fabric and threads etc. The nurses were grateful for the scrubs and looked fabulous in them. [The Scrubbery] did a wonderful job of keeping tabs on the ever increasing requests and made some lovely outfits with their mix and match.”
Thanks also to Philip Woodhouse for the generous donation specifically to allow the purchase of a Juki MO-114DE Overlocker. This will help significantly in improving the finish of many items.