St George's Hospital Charity Thanks Businesses

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For 'helping our fantastic NHS staff keep going' under pressures posed by Covid-19

Local hospital at the forefront of tackling coronavirus has thanked businesses for teaming up to show their support for frontline NHS staff caring for patients at St George’s in Tooting.

The hospital’s charity voiced its “heartfelt gratitude” to companies for furnishing and equipping much-needed “wellbeing zones” in the hospital for doctors, nurses and other clinical staff to take a brief respite from the unprecedented pressures posed by Covid-19.

St George’s Hospital Charity, which has so far raised more than £250,000 from public donations in just four weeks to help support staff and patients at St George’s Hospital, says the contributions from companies have made a genuine difference to those who have put their own lives on the line to offer the best care to others.

“Although this is an extremely challenging time for everyone at the hospital, we are joined in this effort by individuals and companies who show their support every day in different ways,” said Amerjit Chohan, CEO. “Words cannot express how much that support has been appreciated by staff who are pulling out all the stops to give the absolute best quality of care they can.”

Working with clinical teams within the hospital, the charity is funding five wellbeing hubs – which are converted, fully-furnished spaces in the hospital where staff can sit and briefly relax, make a hot drink or grab a nourishing meal from a fully-stocked fridge, with access to a TV, self-massage tools and more.

“It is incredible to have spaces such as these to enable staff to come together and focus on our wellbeing, so that we can look after ourselves at work to optimally look after those who need us the most, our patients,” said Dr Yanushi Dullewe Wijeyeratne, Specialty Registrar in Cardiology and Chair, Junior Doctors’ Forum.

The hospital charity said it was hugely grateful to Breather which has donated “an overwhelming amount of amazing furniture and décor for our wellbeing hubs. The donations have contributed hugely to the relaxing aesthetic which can be hard to create in a hospital environment but has been done”.

It also thanked Kontor “for enabling this all to happen”.

Umbrella Furniture, it said, provided huge discounts on hire furniture for the wellbeing hubs, including high back sofas which allowed staff to take much-needed time away from busy wards and intensive care units.

SHB Real Estate donated 10 microwave ovens enabling each wellbeing hub to have two ovens each, enabling staff to heat up food while taking a break.


TV's and Nespresso machines await distribution

Nespresso donated coffee machines for the hubs and “amazingly 3,600 pods to keep us going” while Tefal donated much welcomed kettles to the wellbeing hubs.

“It's so important to free your mind when it is challenging at work. Most of us have had to adapt very quickly to a highly pressurised and often emotional way of working… I can't thank the teams involved enough in making this real for us. I genuinely felt like I wasn’t in the hospital anymore!” said Jo Hunter, Divisional Director of Nursing and Governance, Medicine and Cardiovascular.

St George’s Hospital is one of the country’s principal teaching hospitals, and famous around the world as home to Channel 4’s 24 Hours in A&E. Alongside Queen Mary’s Hospital, it serves a huge population of around 3.5million across south-west London, Surrey, Sussex, Hampshire and beyond, and its expertise and location meant it was at the forefront of the pandemic from the very beginning.

Staff are under unprecedented pressure and working round-the-clock to deal with the impact of Covid-19.

“From consultants to the porters, nurses to the catering staff, therapists to the midwives, pharmacy teams to the radiographers, laboratory testing teams to the estates team, management and admin teams to the cleaning teams – and all TeamGeorges staff - everyone is working so hard to help people at their most vulnerable. All these incredible donations to the charity appeal are valued and appreciated and we have been overwhelmed with this generosity at such a challenging time for our staff - thank you,” said Jenni Doman, Deputy Director, Estates and Facilities and Staff Governor SGH.

Visit the appeal webpage to make a donation here: www.justgiving.com/campaign/thankyouappeal.

April 28, 2020