Cheshire and North Wales Human Milk Bank is a charity to provide human breast milk to babies born sick and prematurely who will benefit from receiving human breast milk as opposed to cows’ milk formula. Established in 2003 its aim is of providing donated milk to improve health and aid the prevention of disease susceptibility in these babies.
The service headquarters at the Countess of Chester Hospital delivers donated pasteurised breast milk to other hospitals across the UK, and uses country-wide motorcycle couriers who deliver the milk free of charge. To deliver breast milk as per NICE Guidelines, the Human Milk Bank requires a specific kind of transport bag, and after receiving a recommendation from one of their couriers, turned to Versapak.
After liaising with the Human Milk Bank regarding their requirements, Versapak designed and produced a five-litre insulated bag in the specified colour complete with tamper-evident seal housing, with the charity’s logo.
Lynda Coulter of the Milk Bank said: “To be compliant with NICE Guidance we decided to have a bespoke transport bag. They’re just the right size to fit onto the back of a motorbike, and five litres is, as a rule, a perfect average. They can be tagged as well, this satisfies the recipient hospital/family that the bag has remained unopened since leaving the Milk Bank-this is now standard practice for all our milk delivery. Versapak’s service was exemplary. They were incredibly helpful, and after we placed the order, we had our bags in no time. It’s great to have the design bespoke to us – we really didn’t want to have to use transport bags with ‘blood’ written all over them!”
Leon Edwards of Versapak added: “It was wonderful to be able to work with an organisation like the Milk Bank. We’ve worked a lot with the NHS in the past, but this was a little different – we relish the chance to be able to satisfy a need as particular as this.” Visit http://www.versapak.co.uk
The Human Milk Bank processes over 1000 litres of breast milk per year, and uses the many regional fleets of dedicated blood/ milk bike services to deliver milk. Visit http://www.chestermilkbank.org.uk
About the firm
Versapak, established in 1973 and based in Kent, also offers electoral administrators a range of supplementary products including mailing pouches, trolleys and security sacks.
The company’s first product was a reusable mailing pouch called a Versapak, which was adopted by postal systems and courier companies.
