King’s College Hospital charity urges public to help support stressed medics

A hospital’s charity offshoot has sent out an urgent appeal to support stressed medics as it copes with record numbers of Covid-19 patients.

The King’s College Hospital Charity is urging the community to get behind its Support Our Staff appeal to keep hospital staff going through the latest surge of Covid-19, and to be able to provide the best possible care to patients.

It is hoping residents can help with buying food and groceries and by giving practical support.

The hospitals that make up the King’s College Hospital NHS Foundation Trust,
including King’s College Hospital in Camberwell and the Princess Royal University Hospital in Bromley, are now at a critical point in combatting the virus.

Over the festive period, coronavirus admissions increased by more than 600 per cent in just three weeks, and staff are currently treating more than 750 inpatients who have tested positive for the virus.

A statement from the charity said: “Staff are working incredibly long hours in pressurised circumstances, as they continue to go above and beyond to care for their patients.”

Dr Tom Best, clinical director of critical care at King’s, said: “We have more patients now than we did at the peak of the pandemic last year.

“This is truly unprecedented. Now, as we stand on the front line of the second surge, still exhausted from the first, we need your support more than ever.”

Charity chief executive Gail Scott-Spicer said: “The care provided by staff
throughout the hospitals is extraordinary and it is a privilege to be able to help them and to act as a means for our local communities to be able to express their support through their donations.

“We are able to translate this generosity into practical help whether that be through snacks, refreshments and toiletries to keep staff going through long, tough shifts or through funding bereavement counselling for both patients and staff who have lost loved ones during these difficult times.”

Funds raised through the SOS appeal will enable King’s College Hospital Charity to offer immediate practical help to front line staff, like distributing food, toiletries, fresh changes of clothes, and creating a safety net of essential support and well-being services.

To support the King’s SOS appeal click here.

Pictured top: Dr Tom Best