The crucial role of the laundry worker in hospital laundry operations in the time of Covid-19
3 April 2020
INTERNATIONAL
A trawl through LinkedIn and Twitter over the past few days has thrown up many heartfelt messages of support to frontline workers in the Covid-19 pandemic, but perhaps none so much as this, from Anja Uranjek, international sales and marketing manager at Krebe Tippo, who singles out the dedication of laundry staff for praise.
Remarking that so many different people with different languages, cultures, mentality on one planet are all facing the same problem, she refers to: “A problem no one took seriously at first. A problem that surprised us all. And the problem that has forced us to take a moment and think about life.
“Everyone is fighting this ‘war’ in their own way. But a lot of people are fighting it in the front line and these are the people we call Heroes today. Complete healthcare systems, firefighters, police, military, safety organisations and many, many others. Tired, exhausted, in pain with deep worries they don’t stop even for a second to think about themselves. And they will stop at one point, when they will be finished and they will win. And we will win because of them. Because our supporting job is actually not that difficult – to stop, to obey, to listen, to think and to take care of some simple rules. (Some of which actually shouldn’t be thought of as something new, like washing and disinfecting hands, for example.)”.
Uranjek goes on to say: “And there are some heroes that are not seen in media reports…Their importance is not public knowledge, but their work is so crucial for our wellbeing it’s scary to even think about it not being there. These are laundry workers. People taking care of soiled hospital and other linen. These workers are an enormous part of maintaining hygienic standards in healthcare systems all around the globe. They deserve our Respect with a capital letter because they also risk their lives for us not just now, but always.
“Thank you for doing your work. You are not transparent for us, in our business. We see you and we think of you always. We develop the machines that you are using and what we can do is study your work to the point where we understand how to produce a machine that will make your work easier and optimised. We want to help you keep your health and prevent the pain as much as possible.
“So, this is not a marketing advertisement of how you can ‘save yourself and the world, only if you buy our machines’. We don’t believe in this way of advertising, not today.
“This is a letter, to all the people, in different situations, today, to show that we are thankful for each and every effort that you show in these difficult times. And to the Laundry workers. That we appreciate you so much. And we will keep doing our jobs in hope we can make yours a bit easier.
“Thank you.”
