How Corona Changed Everything
When corona came everything changed. The work of medical professionals became more demanding and more relvant than ever. Caring for patients and protecting staff at the same time became a real challenge.
Manufacturers and suppliers were also overrun by the sudden rush for critical supplies and medical products.
We were faced with a dilemma: remove difficult to procure products from our range or find new ways to keep on supplying them during the crisis.
Here is an overview of how we succeeded, what we are doing to maintain supply levels and what we are still struggling with.
Ensuring Availability of Supplies
We decided to do everything we could to keep providing you with all the products you need for good medical practice: through new supply chains, new suppliers - and even chartering our own cargo flights.
Overnight we were suddenly one of the few specialist retailers who had any critical products in stock at all and who were fighting to keep the supply chain going. Within weeks we became one of the largest suppliers to crisis centres across Europe on a previously unimaginable scale.
None of this was easy and we are learning every day. Therefore, we are sorry that in some cases people are still experiencing delays.
What we are doing to provide you with the best possible service
Sustainable Solutions
Think Global Act Local
At the beginning of the pandemic international supply chains collapsed virtually overnight - and protective equipment in particular became a scarce commodity. Export bans, lack of transport capacities and quarantine rules for truck drivers presented us with unprecedented problems. The pandemic was a stark reminder of our dependence on imports and how vulnerable this makes us.
To counteract supply chain dependency in the future we developed Praxisdienst Local: our new concept for local manufacturers and start-ups in the medical technology and supply sector. In this way, we are both supporting our local economy and doing our bit for the environment - as well as reducing the risk of supply shortages.
FAQs
We work in shifts with all available staff. However, parcel delivery services are still dealing with an extremely high volume of parcels and corona protection measures for employees reduce the turnover rate, in some cases quite considerably.
For this reason, there may still be occasional delays.
Items available in stock are marked with "immediately available". Items marked with the note "Item is in stock, we will deliver as soon as possible" are on their way to our warehouse, i.e. there is either a concrete delivery date, the goods are firmly booked on a flight or the arrival date for the container has been confirmed.
Unfortunately, there are some factors such as lorry, flight or sea transport delays, or delays caused by inspection at customs, which we can not control.
Your user account always has up-to-date information on the delivery status of your orders.
When your shipment leaves our logistics centre, you will be informed by e-mail or, if desired, by SMS.
If there are any delays or delivery problems, our customer service team will be happy to help via chat, email or telephone.
In general the situation has improved considerably and most items are usually available.
At present however, there are still problems with syringes & cannulas suitable for vaccinations and large-volume refrigerators. In addition, delivery times for medical furniture are sometimes longer than usual. This is due to the current enormous demand and the covid protection measures in place in production plants.
Dispatching goods to Great Britain is currently considerably difficult. Despite correct customs declarations, consignments of goods can sometimes be delayed at customs for weeks. Unfortunately, neither we nor the companies commissioned by us are able to influence this process.
We expect significant shortages of gloves for a longer period of time: Global demand has increased immensely and production is very complex. Unlike protective masks, for example, setting up new production lines takes a lot of time. Freight capacities, especially from Asia, are still very scarce and prices are correspondingly high. In addition to the scarce transport resources, the onward carriage at European seaports and airports is also a problem. Transport to Europe therefore usually takes much longer than usual.
We were quick to react at an early stage and will continue to do so very actively. This means that we often secure transport capacities months in advance and use various airports and seaports in parallel in order to be able to react as flexibly as possible in the event of delays. We are convinced that we can continue to guarantee high levels of delivery reliability despite the challenging circumstances.
