Shermond Take the Front Cover of the Clinical Services Journal - New Glove Range

Established in 1975, Shermond has become a leading supplier of disposable products to the National Health Service. Among these products include the distinctive “Premier” and “Healthgard” range of medical examination gloves. Offering reliable protection for healthcare workers and patients alike, the examination gloves are suitable for a wide variety of applications and are available in a choice of materials – including natural latex, nitrile rubber or vinyl, in both non-sterile and sterile packaging formats. Reflecting the company’s commitment to providing safe and cost-effective hand protection, all gloves in the “Premier” and “Healthgard” range meet the requirements of the latest British Standard (BS EN 455) and carry the EU-approved CE mark of quality.

Shermond continues to innovate and introduce new examination gloves to the healthcare industry and, this year, the company has re-launched its range of examination gloves in new contemporary packaging, designed to make product identification and selection simpler for the end user. Quality assurance remains at the heart of the Shermond examination glove range. All products sold have been independently tested to confirm they pass the specification detailed in the European examination glove standard, EN455. This demands that the gloves are produced to a consistent quality in terms of size, strength, freedom from pinholes and biocompatibility. Shermond quality is assured by an extensive testing regime in which all production batches are tested at the manufacturing facility and again before they enter the supply chain.

Challenging economic conditions

The prevailing economic conditions facing the healthcare industry have been a key consideration when developing the new range. An example of this is the introduction of the new Healthgard “value” range. Chris Soanes, Managing Director, commented: “We understand the high level of cost scrutiny taking place in our industry. At the same time, we also understand the critical role that our gloves play in protecting the patient and the healthcare employee. Rather than lower the specification of our existing gloves, therefore, we set ourselves the challenge of sourcing a better priced, medical grade product to the market. The Healthgard brand delivers this option to our customers.”

Further changes to the range have also been made to ensure the products can be priced cost effectively – such as the introduction of Nitrile gloves in boxes of 200. Doubling the number of gloves in each box reduces the cost of shipping and has the added benefit of reducing the storage space required. The company has also decided to change the colour of its popular Accelerator Free Nitrile range from lilac to blue. Lee Wrigley, Head of Marketing, explained: “We know that the lilac colour has become synonymous with the quality of these gloves. However, we reviewed the market and concluded that the considerable additional cost of producing a glove with a unique colour could not be justified in the current climate. After careful consideration we decided to make the glove in the same high specification but in blue to enable us to hold our price position in the market place.” Chris Soanes added: “At a time when the raw material price for natural rubber Latex is at record highs, I believe our Nitrile and Soft Vinyl gloves may provide cost-effective alternatives with very similar product characteristics.” The vast majority of the 85 products in the range will be available via NHS Supply Chain.  

Posted 17/02/2011