A note from the Chairman - March
Dear members
As you are all aware we are in the midst of a serious Pandemic flu virus, Covid 19. It appears that things are probably going to get worse and industry will be hit badly. From our point of view, we must remember that we are an essential service to public health and that standards must be maintained. However, we must still follow the advice of the government and health officials. Good personal hygiene practices should always be the norm but more so at the moment. A lot of you will have contracts in hospitals and nursing homes across the country and we would advise you to ring ahead to all such places to check if there are any restrictions you need to be aware of, or indeed if you are allowed on site. We travel a lot in our line of work from customer to customer, so we must be very mindful of this. Minimise contact with people and large crowds and take advice from each customer contact before starting work. If you have hand gels, use them and wash your hands as much as possible. Anyone that is sick should stay at home and anyone with symptoms should contact the HSE or GP by phone and follow their advice.
We have been very busy organising, with the CPE Workshop Group, workshops for the year and we had planned to start later this month rolling them out. Also we had planned to have our AGM at the end of April. The pandemic is a changing force, day by day, week by week, and we will re-assess any public meetings with the advice given as it evolves and let you know.
Also some of you may have seen an recent article in the media regarding suspected increase in rodent problems due to restrictions of rodenticide. The articles make reference to a UK based trade association having a meeting with the Department to discuss same. This was not true.
There was a CRRU taskforce working group meeting recently, at which IPCA were represented, and this may be what the article wrongly referenced. The objective of that meeting was to develop training and awareness for the industry. IPCA are involved with every aspect of all working groups at present dealing with the issues that face our industry on your behalf.
We would like to wish you all the best over the coming weeks and hope that you all and your loved ones will be safe and that your businesses won’t be too badly affected. Please listen to all advice given from reputable sources and minimise the spread of this virus.
All the best for now,
Philip Cranley – 18th March 2020