The John Lewis Partnership has partnered with the British Medical Association (BMA) to distribute care packages for frontline NHS workers at the busiest hospitals across the UK.
The retailer has been making 400 deliveries of essential items to help NHS staff feel refreshed and energised during long shifts. Nightingale London and the main London NHS Trusts were the first to receive the care packages.
Based on advice from the BMA, these supplies will be a combination of 60,000 much-needed non-clinical essentials, including; toiletries, such as deodorant, shaving foam, hand cream, antibac hand gel and lip balm; as well as snack food, tea, coffee and socks. The boxes also contain a wellbeing leaflet with information about a 24/7 counselling service and guidance from the BMA on a range of issues.
These boxes are being delivered to acute hospital trusts in the UK to safely distribute to high intensity clinical areas such as Critical Care and Intensive Care units. This will ensure healthcare staff working long hours and under terrible strain receive the products they need.
In the second week of April, John Lewis Partnership installed a wellbeing area for medical staff and volunteers at the Nightingale NHS Hospital, London, which saw its first two patients discharged yesterday.
The space is the only area within the main part of the hospital that is specifically designed for all staff to have a place of sanctuary, when they need help or time out to relax from their extremely challenging environment.
Composer, Alejandro Bonatto, has created a playlist to help staff unwind in one of the three different wellbeing zones.
Matthew Trainer, Deputy CEO, NHS Nightingale London, said, “We are so grateful to the John Lewis Partnership for their continued commitment to taking care of NHS staff.
“The care packages, designed in collaboration with the BMA, will be a welcome gesture of support for busy staff on the go, and the wellbeing space will allow our staff much-needed time out during their shifts.
“This is a fantastic example of people and companies coming together to help NHS staff as they respond to the greatest public health challenge in over a century – but every member of the public can play their part too, in particular by staying home to slow the spread of the virus and save lives.”
Sharon White, Partner & Chairman, John Lewis Partnership, said, “The John Lewis Partnership salutes the courage and humanity of every NHS worker fighting this awful virus. We are exceptionally lucky to have an amazing health service open to all.
'As a small token, we’re donating food and essential items to the NHS; we’re making it easier for NHS workers to shop in Waitrose and we’re helping staff at the new Nightingale Hospital in London.”
The John Lewis Partnership is also accommodating on-call NHS key workers on its Leckford Estate in Hampshire. The Partnership Hotels team is hosting key medical staff who need to be near the hospital in lodges which are usually used as holiday homes for Partners.
Twelve lodges have been available to the Hampshire NHS Trust, which can accommodate 29 people - each with their own bedroom. The NHS staff are primarily key workers at The Royal County Hampshire Hospital in Winchester.
Waitrose and John Lewis have already introduced a number of other ways to support NHS workers:
• Waitrose shops are setting aside a proportion of hard-to-find and essential products from every delivery - exclusively for NHS staff, on production of an NHS card - who often do not have flexibility over what time of the day they can visit a supermarket.
• NHS staff are given priority checkout service in the retailer's shops to ensure they are able to get through as quickly and easily as possible - through either dedicated NHS checkouts, Partners opening up new tills for them as needed or moving to the front of the queue.
• Gifting essential food items, hot meals and items such as pillows and phone chargers to local hospitals through our Partners in John Lewis and Waitrose.
• Waitrose and John Lewis gave away 50,000 boxes of Easter confectionery to NHS workers in the run up to Easter.