“We’re keeping hospitals going with our equipment”
Key workers have kept our communities running and safe during the coronavirus lockdown. UNISON Cymru Wales caught up with Jenny Wright, administrator at Cefndy Healthcare & Manufacturing, Denbighshire County Council to find out how she has been working.
Cefndy makes disabled healthcare aids and has a disabled workforce. It is part of Denbighshire County Council.
Tell us about your job during the pandemic
We’ve been very busy!
Cefndy is a factory that mainly employs disabled people. We manufacture a range of disability equipment such as commodes and high-backed chairs and deliver to hospitals, care homes and people’s homes all over the UK, Ireland, France, Germany and Holland.
I do the delivery notes and arrange deliveries for customers, phone calls and labelling.
Half the factory floor workers are classed as being at high-risk from Covid-19 because of their various disabilities and health conditions and are not in work in order to shield them. So there’s much more to do because we are very short-staffed.
We are all mucking in and as well as the admin work I’ve also been on the factory floor to help pack the products.
We have a wagon coming on Monday taking 350 commodes we have produced to London, the North East and North West. Pallets of equipment are going out almost every day.
What’s your view of how public service workers have responded to the crisis?
Everyone has rallied round to do what they can, wherever they are needed.
They’ve followed the procedures and done what they need to.
I’ll be glad to see the crisis over but we’re a good bunch. We have really worked well together as a team on the factory floor to keep all orders going for customers as far as Ireland.
What’s your message to the government?
I want them to get on top of the crisis with testing and vaccines as soon as possible; there can’t be any delay in this.
It’s how everyone’s been working together. We’re keeping hospitals in London and elsewhere going with our equipment. The temporary Covid-19 hospital in Llandudno received 80 shower stools we’d made.
How are you going to celebrate the end of the lockdown?
Hopefully the hairdresser will be open! I want to go for a nice meal with my family too.
Find out more about Cefndy Healthcare and Manufacturing here
