Salute to the NHS
Volunteer Today! ✤ Ruth May, Chief Nursing Officer for England, said “I know how much these extraordinary scenes meant to my colleagues.” ✤ Britain’s Got Talent’s Amanda Holden said: “The NHS is amazing. They are saving lives daily. It’s important they feel our appreciation regularly.” ✤ Sarah Moppett, deputy chief nurse at Nottingham University Hospital, said “You could hear fireworks, amazing cheers, and clapping from all around. I can’t tell you how many responses I had from colleagues saying how fantastic it was.” ✤ Dr Matthew Boulter, a GP in Penzance, Cornwall, said: “Many of our staff broke down and wept. It has an enormous effect on morale.”
were consultant Dr Alfa Saadu, 68, who refused to retire and continued to treat elderly patients, and became the fifth frontline UK medical worker to die after catching the disease, while 57-year-old healthcare assistant Thomas Harvey died after he was infected at Goodmayes Hospital, East London. We can now see the light at the end of the tunnel, with measures such as social distancing, test-and-track and treatments for respiratory failure helping us to turn the corner. While we must remain alert, soon it's hoped there will be a vaccine available and this dark episode can be put behind us. What will remain will be the feeling of gratitude behind Clap for Our Carers, with plans for an annual salute to the brave people who give so much to keep us safe and well. https://clapforourcarers.co.uk/ #clapforourcarers hc
Remember that you can help the NHS directly by becoming an NHS Volunteer Responder. Members of the public can sign up to become NHS Volunteer Responders, and can be called on to do simple but vital tasks such as: ✤ Delivering medicines from pharmacies ✤ Driving patients to appointments ✤ Bringing them home from hospital ✤ Making regular phone calls to check on people isolating at home NHS Volunteer Responders is not intended to replace local groups helping their vulnerable neighbours but is an additional service provided by the NHS. Go to www.goodsamapp.org/NHS for more information.
✤ The Prince of Wales was seen for the first time since testing positive for the virus taking part in the first national round of applause. He posted a video paying tribute to the ‘selfless devotion’ of those working on the frontline of the fight against coronavirus and urged the nation ‘to look forward to better times to come’. He described his own seven-day period of self-isolation as “strange, frustrating and often distressing.”
FRONTLINE Sadly, it became all too clear that frontline workers in the NHS were themselves in particular danger of infection. Among the early casualties celebrityangels.co.uk
HC3B Salute The NHS V2.indd 9
Healthy Child with Dr Ranj Singh | 9
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