Posted on: 29 April 2020
Patients on CNWL’s hospital wards can now stay in touch with their families, thanks to generous donations, funding the purchase of iPads, and tablet.
The donations were made and pledged by CNWL’s IT department, NHS England and Amazon.
The Trust’s wards are closed to visitors, to keep patients safe. It means that patients could go for several weeks without seeing their loved ones. But these donations will change that.
On Monday, Samara Hammond, who has been redeployed from her post as Clinical Practice Lead for Rapid Response to fight on the frontlines, as a nurse practitioner on the hospital wards, tweeted her gratitude. She had just supported a patient at St Pancras Hospital, to video chat with his family.
"@ClaireCNWL thank-you, thank-you, thank-you—the iPads are spectacular —seeing the joy in family members reuniting electronically is heart soaring #camdenIAS #stpancras #NHS #ilovemyjob @CNWLPeople" she tweeted.
Samara said the donations impacted her too: “It was the best part of my day —watching a husband and wife reconnect after three weeks apart — made my heart soar!”
The Trust has also updated its Wifi to support video calling.
Maria O’Brien, Chief Nurse, said, “Thanks so much for these very practical and much appreciated donations . Amazon, NHS Eng. and our own IT Dept. have helped us enormously. With CoViD raging visiting has had to be restricted but visitors are so important and these donations help make visiting possible. Keeping in touch with loved ones is so important to families and for the patients themselves. This is a great donation that’s making a big difference.”
These donations make a big difference, but they are only a drop in the bucket —CNWL’s services span Central and North West London, as well as outer areas, including Milton Keynes, Surrey and Buckinghamshire. And the Trust is now running expanded services to deal with the COVID-19 pandemic.
That’s why we’re trying to raise money to support patients with what they need, while locked down on hospital wards, and staff, who are working long shifts, away from their own homes to keep patients safe and well.
Anything you can give will help. You can find out more and donate here.
Staff have so far been telling us that they need supplies and spaces to look after their wellbeing, while they’re working longer hours, some unable to see their own families.
Some of the money already donated by the public will go towards buying a requested expresso machine for our Arch Service, at Old Bank House in Uxbridge, where staff provide care for young people who turn to alcohol or drugs to cope with conditions like depression, anxiety and trauma.
Staff at HMP & YOI Bronzefield have asked for a“downtime space” where they can recharge while on break, at the site where they provide primary care, mental health care and substance misuse services to existing offenders (and those at risk of offending). We will use the money to create the space, and get them wellbeing packs, toiletries and refreshments.
These are just two of the requests we’ve received from staff, and approved for funding, with many others in the pipeline. But we need help to fund them so we can support our staff while they fight to protect us all.
Your donation will directly benefit staff on the ground. You can give here.
