Ford of Britain is lending more than two-hundred vehicles to the National Health Service, police, local councils, care homes, and businesses to fight coronavirus and save lives, it emphasised. Forty organisations therefore have brand new, reliable, and versatile vehicles that can perform a wide range of critical tasks.
The South Central Ambulance Service has thirty-three vehicles, for example. Ford is also helping other health organisations so there is support in numerous parts of the country. The beneficiaries are:
- St. John Ambulance (twenty vehicles)
- British Red Cross (seven vehicles)
- South East Coast Ambulance Service (6 vehicles)
- Welsh Ambulance Service (4 vehicles)
- East Midlands Ambulance Service (3 vehicles)
- London Ambulance Service (2 vehicles)
- North East Ambulance Service (2 vehicles)
- Northumbria Healthcare NHS Trust (2 vehicles)
- Northumberland Tyne and Wear NHS Foundation Trust (1 vehicle)
- Sussex Community NHS Trust (1 vehicle).
Ford explains its contribution
Ford of Britain Press Officer, Len Keen, is co-ordinated the operation that lends vehicles to key organisations. He explained: ‘Ten National Health Service ambulance trusts, the British Red Cross and St. John Ambulance have received vehicles to bolster their operations. The vehicles are being used to enable support functions rather than front line patient services’, Len Keen added.
Other beneficiaries
Naturally, countless other organisations help people in the community. ACASA Care and Support helps six-hundred older and vulnerable people in Hampshire, for example. The company’s carers therefore have six brand new, dependable, practical vehicles so they can easily travel to see people that need help in their homes.
ACASA Care and Support Managing Director, Oliver Alexander, therefore praised the manufacturer. He said: ‘A crisis brings out the best in people and companies. This is certainly very true in the case of Ford. It is helping ensure we can look after people whose only visitors every day may be our care team’, he emphasised.
Tesco has a fleet of new vehicles too. Why? Because these forty-three vans deliver food and other essential items to people who cannot – or should not – go to the shops and risk catching or spreading coronavirus. That applies to many, of course. Ford is also lending vehicles to police forces (five) and local councils (four). In total, two-hundred and three are now on the front line.
Medical equipment and supplies
Ford is taking further steps to battle coronavirus by producing medical supplies for the United States. These include respirators, face masks, and reusable gowns constructed from ‘airbag materials’.