It was two months ago that alarm bells started ringing for Anna Davidson, when she tried to order hand sanitiser for the GP super-clinic she manages, but could not source it from anywhere around the globe.

Key points: GP offices around the country were struggling to source hand sanitiser in February

GP offices around the country were struggling to source hand sanitiser in February Three GP office managers got together to convince industry to produce and ship the sanitiser to clinics

Three GP office managers got together to convince industry to produce and ship the sanitiser to clinics The group is now calling on the Government to help them keep the production line going



Ms Davidson's family runs a manufacturing company in China, where employees warned the coronavirus crisis was more dire than most believed.

By then, COVID-19 had started to spread across the world and Ms Davidson was growing increasingly concerned.

"I knew it was going to hit Australia and it was going to hit us bloody hard. If we were already out of stock then, then God help us when the peak hits," she said.

From her practice in Nelson Bay in NSW, Ms Davidson touched base with a 3,900-strong Practice Managers Network on Facebook to see if others were experiencing the same problem.

The situation was worse than she imagined.

Anna Davidson mobilised her contacts in the manufacturing industry to get sanitiser to GP clinics around the country. (Supplied)

Practices had already run out, and managers were deeply alarmed.

As the crisis worsened, clinic managers knew they'd need more sanitiser than ever and that without it, the lives of their front-line workers were at risk.

"Hospitals seemed to be reasonably well-resourced, and other health entities were not doing too badly, but the offices of general practitioners were left high and dry," said Riwka Hagen, who runs the Facebook group.

"We desperately needed help and nobody seemed to be helping us."

So began what Ms Hagen called a "Herculean" effort to get hand sanitiser to practices across the country.

Ms Davidson got in touch with Dave Easton, who had repurposed his Sydney-based company Water Test Systems to make hand sanitiser.

She was able to procure enough for her team of 35 doctors, nurses, psychologists, physiotherapists, dieticians, podiatrists and administrative staff.

But she didn't stop there.

"The demand was overwhelming, from nurses, doctors, specialists — I had an oncologist email me desperate for hand sanitiser to maintain hygiene while treating patients with cancer," Ms Davidson said.

"Dave Easton could supply us with 1,000 litres. We needed 300,000 litres.

"[He said] 'for that, you'll need to contact my dad'."

Producing hand sanitiser in bulk

Dave's father, Steven Easton, is the managing director at Mera Chemicals, a Melbourne-based chemical technology company.

"I essentially begged and pleaded with them until they understood the reality of what was coming," she said.

"I told them how many lives were at risk, and how many lives they could help save … I told them, they'd be the heroes of the nation."

So Mera Chemicals downed tools and spent an estimated $650,000 repurposing its factory to handle high-grade alcohol to produce sanitiser.

In the meantime, Anna Davidson had been hunting high and low for the key ingredient in sanitiser — ethanol.

She had sourced a small amount locally, but she needed thousands of litres.

Ms Davidson says she convinced industry to convert their operations to making hand sanitiser. (Facebook: Practice Managers Network)

Ms Davidson discovered that Manildra Group is the largest producer of ethanol in South East Asia — and as luck would have it, she was only a few steps removed from one of its senior executives.

Within hours Anna was on the phone to the Manildra boss, who promised to provide as much ethanol as the project would require.

"Anna Davidson kind of held a gun to the heads of manufacturers and suppliers and said; 'you will do this at the lowest possible cost and if you do that we will help you with a market that is very receptive to your product'," Riwka Hagen said.

Getting sanitiser to GPs around the country

By this point, Ms Davidson was in regular contact with the admins of the Practice Managers Network Facebook page — Ms Hagen in Melbourne and Matt Gilchrist in Toowoomba.

While she had managed to procure enough sanitiser to protect workers in hundreds of practices, she wasn't sure how to get it to them.

Fortunately, Mr Gilchrist did.

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Before he worked with GPs, he'd worked in fuel distribution and knew a thing or two about the logistics of dangerous goods.

With the sanitiser ready and clinics desperate to receive it, Mr Gilchrist managed to convince mates in the fuel industry to deliver it for free.

Just two weeks later, five litre bottles began arriving at urban, rural and remote clinics.

The group's Facebook page began to fill up with images of happy recipients.

Trish Cuthbert, the practice manager at Granite Belt Medical services in Stanthorpe, Queensland said her surgery was one of many that may have had to close had it not been for the efforts of Ms Davidson, Ms Hagen and Mr Gilchrist.

"If it wasn't for our three guardian angels, thousands of surgeries throughout Australia would have no access to hand sanitiser, just as we have limited, if any, access to other personal protective equipment," she said.

"This would have caused many surgeries to have had to close their doors."

Katie Yeo from Gunning Community Care team, outside Canberra, said her team was ecstatic to receive what she described as "liquid gold".

Matt Gilchrist was one of three GP office managers who helped clinics around the country source sanitiser. (Facebook: Practice Managers Network)

"It will mean we can now continue to serve our rural patients," she said.

Karen Jackson from the Northside Clinic in Coffs Harbour, NSW said she could not thank the group enough.

"As the first line of contacts for patients and not having been able to access hand sanitiser our staff felt a huge sense of relief," she said.

Government help sought

Mr Gilchrist said the group, now called Hand Sanitiser Project Australia, would need government help if it was to continue the supply.

"We're not going to be able to do this forever," Mr Gilchrist said.

"This problem is not going to go away overnight; we all know it will be at least six months

The group has contacted both the State and Federal Governments for assistance.

A member of Trish Cuthbert's team holds up a bottle of the hand sanitiser. (Facebook: Practice Managers Network)

"We are ready and able to produce over 100,000 litres of hand sanitiser a week and we are willing to work with the Commonwealth to protect primary care today," Ms Hagen said

"What we need is for the Commonwealth and States to get on board and work together to protect those who are on the frontlines," she said.

Minister for Industry, Science and Technology Karen Andrews said she was impressed by the efforts of the sector to date.

"Industry has shown incredible good will and resourcefulness to significantly ramp up their production of hand sanitiser," she said.

"All of this increased production has been done without any direct financial support from government."