As Britain’s second coronavirus wave reached its peak, NHS staff continue to meet the challenges posed by the pandemic head-on. The staff at LNWUH NHS Trust are going the extra mile every day to provide the best care possible under extreme distress and pressure.

Northwick Park Hospital became the first NHS hospital in the country to declare a major incident as it was overrun by coronavirus last March, shortly before the first lockdown. Nearly a year later, the state of emergency continues. As our amazing NHS colleagues provide life-saving care every day, we too, have been finding meaningful ways to support them.

On popular demand from our NHS staff, we have returned to provide healthy, nutritious snacks and refreshments to help our staff rejuvenate and re-energise between long, arduous shifts in COVID-wards. We have also extended our support to include non-clinical staff who are in the background, keeping the operations of the Trust going. Over the last month, we have been running distribution drives to share healthy snacks and refreshments across the Trust. We have also developed a central approach to manage all donations, to ensure we can benefit as many of the Trust’s 8,000+ staff, in over five locations, as possible.

In the second wave, we have so far spent just under £30,000 on bottled water, tea, coffee and healthy snack bars. We have also funded kettles for Covid Ward staff rooms and hot water flasks for mobile coffee mornings facilitated by the Trust ‘s Health and Wellbeing Team.

Wendy George, Head of Charitable Funds, LNWH Charity states, “We are delighted to be working in partnership with the Trust’s Health and Wellbeing team to deliver refreshments, snacks and other donated items to COVID wards.”

"We recognise how difficult it is for staff working in PPE to get the refreshments they need throughout the day, so we hope that by delivering directly to these wards, it goes some way to making their working day a little easier.”

Over the last year, the outpouring of kindness to our staff has been truly awe-inspiring; we are incredibly grateful as every donation, no matter how big or small will make a difference.

With our donors' support, we want to continue to fund improvements in our care, acquire medical equipment and invest in research and facilities to deliver the very best care for people across Northwest London.

To meet our high standards of infection prevention and control, we cannot accept offers of hot food or PPE. We are accepting donated items including snacks and products for care packs such as creams, lip balms, etc. We encourage the donors to contact us via our email and we will respond either accepting or declining the offer.

If you would like to support us, please consider donating to us using the button below or write to us at lnwh-tr.charity@nhs.net