AS hospital and community-based NHS staff working for County Durham and Darlington NHS Foundation Trust have faced the challenges of Covid-19, an army of individuals, groups and businesses have stepped up to respond and support them.

Pat Chambers, the Trust’s charity manager, explains why the many generous and thoughtful donations made the world of difference to both staff and patients.

“First of all, we want to say a huge thank you to everyone who has supported us during the pandemic.

“You may not believe the very real difference you’ve made. As the Trust’s charity, we use donations and legacies to deliver a whole range of projects which make a difference to patient experience as well as supporting our hardworking colleagues.

“We also raise funds ourselves by hosting events and helping those who want to get involved to find ways to do so. Our contribution is significant – for example, in recent years our charity helped ensure the Trust was able to purchase state of the art MRI scanners for our hospitals in Darlington and Bishop Auckland.

“Last year, at the very time the money almost stopped coming in, the need for things our charity would usually support increased significantly. The national guidance and lockdowns have limited sponsored activities or hosting community events – both of which help keep donations coming in – which is why we are so grateful for the support that we have received from businesses and the public.

“As part of the Trust’s rapid planning for the pandemic, we knew that our clinical colleagues would be under immense pressure, working long shifts, caring for very ill people with a virus we knew nothing about and as a charity we wanted to support their health and wellbeing.

“Thanks to emergency grant funding from NHS Charities Together, we were able to create comfortable rest areas in our two acute hospitals in Durham and Darlington, with large recliner chairs. We were also able to provide toasters, fridges and microwaves for staff on wards, departments and community teams to provide some home comforts for their breaks.

“We were able to buy televisions and radios to help combat loneliness and isolation due to visitor restrictions and iPads to help patients keep in touch with family and friends. We also purchased assisted listening devices to support patients with hearing impairments to better help them understand what was being said by staff wearing masks.

“We are immensely grateful to the schools, colleges, universities and businesses who emptied their stores of safety glasses and personal protective equipment and donated them to our staff.

“And to those with knitting and stitching skills, such as the seamstresses from Harrison Flags, Darlington, who switched from making flags to turn their hands to creating scrubs for our staff, as well as the Women’s Institutes, Inner Circle and the other community groups who made laundry bags, headbands and knitted hearts.

“When the shelves in shops were being stripped bare, donations of food for staff flooded in, from treats such as pizzas, cakes and biscuits to cupboard staples such as tea, coffee and bread as well as energy bars and fruit and vegetables.

“It felt amazing knowing that we were in people’s thoughts and that so many people wanted to support us at such a challenging time for everyone, this really helped to keep us all going.

“The charity also collected and delivered thousands of donated toiletries from all over the county and arranged delivery into wards, departments and community locations – with visitor restrictions, these essential supplies were not getting to patients so, with public support we helped to bridge that gap for our patients. Morrison’s along with other supermarkets and the public, responded to our call for toiletries and, at various times since the pandemic began, have sent boxes of chocolates and other much-appreciated goodies, which have been shared amongst our teams.

“Darlington based, Fabrications North East made an amazing metal ‘rainbow bench’ for Darlington Memorial Hospital, which is incredibly popular with staff and visitors alike. It was inspired by the rainbow drawings created by children during the first lockdown. Many families sent their children’s artwork to us and we continue to display these on newly created Wellness Walls across our hospital sites.

“Holland and Barrett, Darlington, delivered almost 50 goodie bags for colleagues, each packed with lots of their high quality skin care, vitamins and things to eat.

“We received almost 2,000 Easter eggs from various generous sources, just before Easter 2020, which were distributed to colleagues in our hospitals and the community.

“And with a very different Christmas period staff were kindly given special treats from Ferrero Rocher who donated 7,000 advent calendars as well as donations from Mars with chocolate reindeers and cakes.

“It’s made the world of difference to know our hard working teams have been in so many people’s hearts during such a difficult time. We’re so grateful.” Staff support the charity with fundraising activities and between July and September 2020, the maternity team at Darlington Memorial Hospital carried out a mini triathlon which involved an 11-mile walk, a 100-mile cycle and a Great North Run solo challenge, all to raise money to create a low risk midwifery room within the delivery suite at the hospital.

Julie Gilbert Matron for Maternity said: “The money raised allowed the maternity team to refurbish a low risk delivery room. The aim is to offer a relaxing, non-clinical environment for women and their support partner. The rooms have a starry sky ceiling, a mood tube, colour co-ordinated flooring and blinds and new furniture including a birthing couch – all of which has created a fantastic calming area to welcome babies into the world.

“The feedback we have received from women has been fantastic. This is not the end - we aim to refurbish all of our rooms.”

Your NHS Charity is only able to make a difference to patient care and support our hardworking staff thanks to the generosity of our patients, their friends and families, carers, our CDDFT colleagues and local communities - thank you!

Pat Chambers, adds, “A large portion of our fundraising and donations comes from events that we run and that are run for us, particularly in the warmer months. Of course, this continues to be very difficult. We can’t stress enough how much we still need people to support us in any way they can. We’re currently managing increasing numbers of patients with Covid-19, whilst also maintaining our many other services and catching up with some that had to be paused during 2020, such as planned orthopaedic surgical procedures.

"So our teams continue working incredibly hard and there is much that donations and other support can contribute to the experience both they and our patients have."

To help Your NHS Charity contact 01325-743781 or cddft.charity@nhs.net.

 

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