A WELL-KNOWN Bradford organisation has called for more focus to be placed on helping care homes as part of its campaign to boost the fight against coronavirus.

The Pakistan Club - a non-religious and non-political organisation based in Manningham Lane - handed over 1,000 face masks to Britannia Care Home, in Girlington and also delivered some to Clarendon Medical Practice, in White Abbey.

It is all part of club's "Save Our Heroes" campaign, where the main aim is to raise £50,000 to support the NHS by buying vital personal protective equipment (PPE).

President of The Pakistan Club, Basharat Ali, has quickly learnt a lot about the PPE industry and the crisis itself from spending a lot of time trying to source equipment.

He says the "untold story" of these unprecedented times is in care homes and admits a crisis is impending.

Mr Ali added: "They want the same kind of protection as those in the NHS.

"One of the biggest reasons for that is the hospitals are discharging older patients, but they are not being tested.

"They're sent to care homes and they don't know whether they've got the infection and if they do, many problems arise from that.

"My biggest fear is, in terms of care homes, will we end up experiencing what happened in Spain where a lot of people were left on their own to die - dead people were found in those homes, days and days later.

"If we get ourselves organised properly we can avoid that.

"The NHS has quite rightly had all the attention in the last few weeks but somebody needs to get a grip on what's going on and do something about it."

Manoj Joshi, the owner of Britannia Care Home, said: “The Pakistan Club is generously providing desperately-needed PPE to Care Homes.

“Thank you for ‘Caring for the Carers.’”

The club's campaign is getting vital, and certified, PPE to the right places at a rapid rate.

Mr Ali agrees that providing on a local level is more efficient because groups and communities can tackle the problem quickly and get exactly what is needed.

He added: "I think what happens is that a lot of places that are supposed to be provided for are told something is arriving, then obviously they think there's no point us doing anything, because something is coming.

"What often happens then is, it's the wrong stuff, or not the right amount.

"The whole supply chain has problems at the moment.

"By the time it comes, they've started running out, they start splashing about and think who's going to help us?

"The Government shouldn't make promises."

Mr Ali admits the whole situation is ludicrous and says he'd even spoken to a company in Wakefield who had contacted the government to help, but heard nothing back and are now supplying to Italy.

He said: "Firms have got in touch with the government to say that they can get stuff, but then nobody comes back to them.

"There's stuff coming into the UK and then they're sending it back out to Europe.

"A company in Birmingham, they had five million pounds worth of equipment, they told the government and said they're happy to supply it here.

"Nobody took them up on it."

Dr Waheed Hussain, the GP partner at Clarendon Medical Centre and Chair of City Health, said: “I would like to thank Basharat from The Pakistan Club who has helped the practice by securing PPE masks for the organisation at a critical time.

“The equipment will help to protect staff and patients at the front end of primary care services.”

The campaign has also been boosted by a donation of 1,500 masks from the "Hawwa Appeal" - a charity which aims to support those without basic human needs.

  • For more details of the campaign click here