As coronavirus becomes more prevalent in Europe, Medline Europe is facing unprecedented demand for many of our products. We continue to receive many inquiries for personal protective equipment (PPE), respiratory facemasks in particular.

Many other products, like surgical gowns and scrub suits, are also in high demand. Medline is committed to protecting the supply of PPE and other essential medical apparel and products as much as possible for our customers, and to making sure that they are fairly allocated.

Please note, for these critical products, we are not accepting any new customers at this time.

Meanwhile, many of our production facilities are getting back to work, but they are not yet all at full capacity. Production and infrastructure are still constrained. Stock levels are currently decreasing, but we estimate, based on the number of manufacturing facilities that have restarted operations, that customer deliveries will gradually return to normal. If this takes longer than expected, we will continue to place limits on high-demand products to avoid a stock-out situation.

We are closely monitoring the situation and our sales and customer service teams are keeping our customers informed about any changes to our inventories that may impact them.

We have been closely tracking the latest coronavirus developments in Europe and around the world and weighing what they mean for our employees, their families and the customers we serve.

As a company, we are adhering to the guidance set forth by the World Health Organization (WHO). And as each country and region in Europe is facing different circumstances, we also are closely monitoring and communicating about local developments. That means our offices are following local government and health authority’s guidance if it extends beyond that provided by the WHO.

At this time, we have done the following:

• Created a centralised coronavirus communications process, ensuring timely creation and distribution of all internal and external communications
• Published two messages each week from leadership to all employees with transparent updates focusing on company-wide precautionary guidelines and customer-impacting supply chain information
• Developed and launched an internal coronavirus intranet page with an archive of all communications and links to helpful heath resources
• Restricted all travel (based on travel warnings from local governments); emergency travel is at the traveller’s discretion
• Cancelled customer visits and large and internal and customer meetings until further notice
• Looked after our employees’ well-being and strongly emphasised that employees not feeling well should stay home
• Enabled all employees to work from home who can in their position
• Ensured all of our facilities are stocked with hand sanitizer
• Asked all customer-facing employees to strictly adhere to any additional practices or rules set out by healthcare providers they visit.

Rest assured we are doing everything we can to continue to support Europe’s vital healthcare systems while keeping all of our employees safe and healthy.