CGI Heroes Emily McCann

Firstly let me say I am not a hero but the people I work alongside are. 

I work in a laundry Celtic Linen, one of the largest in the country and in the middle of March we went from being a laundry who supplied hotels and hospitals to primarily a healthcare laundry . So what does an industrial laundry do , normally to hospitals we wash and supply bed linen, towelling, curtains and scrubs, now we supply scrubs, more scrubs and more scrubs along with the normal linen. But now we work within a COVID situation. Our sorters in the linen room are dealing with the soiled linen from some of the major hospitals and large nursing homes in the country. This linen comes in and we don't know if its infected or not. We have strict procedures for foul and infected but still our sorters come in each day to work and work hard to continue to process the linen and scrubs that are essential for the health service to continue. The work goes thru the factory where it is them dispatched to the hospitals. 

So what do I do in this laundry , well a large part of my job lately along with the other members of our team is talking to people, looking at there changing requirements for scrub suits, increasing the usage of scrubs in all hospitals where we now have people who never wore scrubs wearing them. Speaking to new users, explaining how they are ordered, how the foul infected works. Also reassuring staff in hospitals that we will keep them supplied with scrubs, looking at there normal linen as they don't have normal hospital admissions.  We are working closely with the HSE in the set up of the step down facility in City West and now one in the university of Limerick. All of these actions are the part we are playing in the protection of our health care workers and the patients they deal with .  I do feel proud when I see our scrubs in pictures and one the news. Proud when I see our sheets being used by the army to dress beds in city west.  We are playing an essential part in this pandemic. 

So as I said I'm not a hero but I do work in a service that is classed as an essential service and plays a part in helping preventing the spread of COVID19 and I do consider my work colleagues heroes. 

To all of our front  line workers in CGI , from doctors, from nurses, from pharmacists, from medical scientists , anyone and everyone involved in the protection of us all well done and thank you from us all. And to you the members who are doing what you are told, you are playing your part . And most important our young people you are fabulous, we know how hard it is on you , how you are missing your friends, grandparents, guides and school. But you are doing great well done.