The British fetish specialist MedFetUK has decided to donate its clinical supplies to a hospital to help in the fight against COVID-19. The situation in Great Britain is so serious that the state health authority was dependent on the help of the fetish retailer.
MedFetUK is a niche online shop specializing in BDSM products for devotees and fans of the classic medical play segment. For years it has been supplying its customers with gowns, latex gloves, breathing masks and sterile materials for needle and electro stimulation.
On its website, the company promotes itself not to have any fake Halloween-like nurse costumes or cheap tools on offer. Only »first-class medical equipment and accessories from reputable suppliers in the UK and Europe« are on offer.
After the British health authority NHS desperately contacted MedFetUK and asked whether medical clothing was available for a hospital in the South of England, the retailer decided without further ado to donate its inventory. The NHS could not get enough protective clothing (PPE) from its own resources and was grateful for MedFetUK’s rapid assistance.
A representative of the distributor said: »We told them we only had a few sets in stock and said they could have them free of charge if it was any help. They said, ‘Yes, please.’ This was not the first inquiry we’ve had this week either.«
In an interview with the British newspaper The Guardian, Dr. Rinesh Parmar, Chairman of the Doctors’ Association UK said, »The longer this epidemic goes on for, if doctors feel that there is a widespread lack of personal protective equipment, then some doctors may feel they have no choice but to give up the profession they love because they feel so abandoned by not being given the PPE that the World Health Organization recommends.«
The NHS is also issuing cautionary and desperate statements: »Without adequate PPE our workforce will be decimated. Who will then be left to look after patients?«
MetFetUK continues to take responsibility. Although the company wants to continue to supply its own customers as well as possible, it also wants to play a part in the fight against the virus. In a message to its customers, the retailer writes: »Until the threat from the COVID-19 virus recedes, we have taken a decision not to re-stock certain items once our current stocks run out.« This is mainly about protective clothing and materials that can be used to protect against infection.
There are currently almost 20,000 confirmed cases of the new type of coronavirus in the UK. More than 1,000 people have died, the prognoses look bleak as the health system is chronically underfunded and the current Prime Minister, Boris Johnson, who has himself become ill with COVID-19, has underestimated the effects and dangers of the virus.
Therefore, MedFetUK cannot refrain from expressing criticism. The company notes: »A hospital shouldn’t need to ask us for help in a crisis. When we, a tiny company set up to serve a small section of the kink community, find ourselves being sought out as a last-resort supplier to our National Health Service in a time of crisis, something is seriously wrong.«
The retailer addresses the politicians responsible in no uncertain terms: »Let’s be under no illusions, this is the result of a decade of chronic underfunding and cuts which has left the NHS barely able to cope under normal circumstances, much less when faced with the onslaught of a global pandemic.«
Further information on MedFetUK can be found on the company’s website.