Coronavirus: Thousands of dissolvable laundry bags given to NHS

Thousands of water-soluble laundry bags have been donated free of charge to the NHS by a manufacturing firm.

The bags dissolve at 60C so workers can safely take their work-wear home in the bags and put them straight into a washing machine.

Birmingham-based manufacturer Aquapak said it has given 46,000 to healthcare providers in the Midlands, North East, Yorkshire and East Anglia.

The firm said it was "keen to do whatever we could to help".

Chief executive Mark Lapping said: "Over the coming weeks it is incumbent on all of us in business to do whatever we can to support front-line workers delivering world-class care to our most vulnerable people."

The bags are made using Hydropol, a new polymer technology, designed to be water-soluble, non-toxic and marine safe.

Up to 12,000 have been given to the University Hospitals Birmingham NHS Foundation Trust. Others have been distributed to several other West Midlands hospitals and the Acorns Children's Hospice.

Staff at Newcastle's Royal Victoria Infirmary, NHS sites in the Norfolk area including the Queen Elizabeth Hospital in King's Lynn, and the Leeds Teaching Hospitals Trust have also been given the bags.

More than 1,000 have been supplied to the Treetops Hospice and GP surgeries across Nottingham in the east Midlands.

Lisa Stalley Green, executive chief nurse at the University Hospitals Birmingham NHS Foundation Trust, said: "On behalf of University Hospitals Birmingham I would like to thank Aquapak for their kind donation of laundry bags to our front-line staff.

"I am so proud and full of admiration for the staggering and ongoing effort from all of our staff to treat and protect our patients, our staff and all our families in the battle against coronavirus."

Follow BBC West Midlands on Facebook, Twitter and Instagram. Send your story ideas to: newsonline.westmidlands@bbc.co.uk