Vital contributions helping protect staff on the frontline

Throughout this pandemic, healthcare has never been more important, or more challenging. Across King’s Health Partners, we are working to ensure healthcare workers get the support they need.

While the NHS has provided the majority of Personal Protective Equipment (PPE) to healthcare workers, the philanthropic support underpinning the supply of PPE to our frontline staff has been greatly appreciated.

Donations to King’s Health Partners have had a significant impact. To highlight some key examples: more than 72,000 medical face masks, 11,000 pairs of gloves and 57,000 protective gowns have been made available through the generosity of our donors.

Committed volunteers across the partnership have spent hundreds of hours negotiating the logistics of bringing in PPE to the UK from abroad. This includes navigating export restrictions, ensuring clearance from customs and understanding approvals processes at the Guy's and St Thomas' NHS Foundation Trust supply chain hub in Dartford.

Like the rest of the world, high quality PPE is crucial for healthcare workers across hospitals in the UK during the coronavirus pandemic. Wearing the right PPE significantly limits their exposure to COVID-19 and enables them to continue caring for and saving lives – without endangering their own.

How King’s Health Partners is supporting the fight against COVID-19

Our Academic Health Science Centre brings together a world-leading research-led university, King’s College London, with three NHS Foundation Trusts: Guy’s and St Thomas’, King’s College Hospital, and South London and Maudsley.

King’s Health Partners cares for over eight million people, with nearly 4.8 million patient contacts each year. With a large, diverse, research-accessible patient population, increasingly stratified based on genomic, phenotypic and behavioural characteristics, we have significant scientific capacity to make real progress in tackling the impact of COVID–19.

Activity across our partnership includes diagnostic tests and trialling potential therapies to analysing COVID-19’s economic effects and repercussions for mental health.

Philanthropic activity has played a crucial role in managing our frontline workers’ exposure to risk. Provision of effective PPE is essential to limiting this exposure. Below we explore two key examples of how philanthropic activity has made a difference in protecting staff on the frontline.

The importance of collaboration with Dr Yijing Li

Hear from Dr Yijing Li, lecturer in urban informatics at King’s College London, who explores how collaboration and goodwill helped the team provide a national contribution of personal protective equipment.

A 3D ‘print farm’ providing vital protection

Find out more about how 3D printing companies worked with King’s College London volunteers to deliver face shields to Guy’s and St Thomas’ NHS Foundation Trust.

Talking about the generous donations for the benefit of others, David Lawson, Chief Procurement Officer, Guy's and St Thomas' NHS Foundation Trust said:

We have been very grateful for the generous donations of PPE items, which have been a vital part of our response to COVID-19 and helped to ensure our staff have what they need to provide the best possible patient care.

John Pennant, Senior Principal Gifts Fundraiser, King’s College London and King’s Health Partners said:

It has been a real pleasure facilitating gifts that have had a direct benefit to our colleagues on the frontlines. The generosity and good will of donors such as Lady Xuelin Bates as well as working with my friend and King’s Lecturer, Dr Yijing Li, to bring in gifts from China have been particular highlights.

David Lawson, Chief Procurement Officer, Guy’s and St Thomas’, has also been a pleasure to work with, particularly in sharing the vision that we should assist not only our colleagues at King’s Health Partners but also the wider healthcare community. The response and good will of people in raising over £500,000, and providing over 100,000 medical and surgical masks and other PPE, has been marvellous.

Lady Xuelin Bates said:

The work of the NHS in this pandemic has been extraordinary and the British Chinese community wanted to show their solidarity and support. We will get through these times, and the more we all help and support each other the quicker that will happen. 

PPE donations have enabled our response to be as swift as possible to a global health crisis. Each donation forms a vital part of an international effort which ensures that our healthcare workers are safer doing their jobs and can continue looking after their patients. Every such gift we receive takes us one step closer to success and protects more healthcare workers’ lives. Thank you.

Thanks to Peter Deng and Eddie Li Hao Cheng for their generous gifts of PPE. We would also like to thank Art Saves Us who have generously donated PPE.

Kailan Lucas, Director, Art Saves Us, said:

Art is one of humanity’s most coveted treasures, solace to many, particularly during times of crisis. Art transcends borders, unites people regardless of race, religion or nationality. The mission of ‘Art Saves Us’ is to use the unifying power of all aspects of the arts to raise funds and donate to people and organisations in need as a result of the outbreak of COVID-19. We hope that the PPEs we donated to King’s College Hospital NHS Foundation Trust could support our frontline medical staff in time of urgent need.

Building on the philanthropic gifts we have received, and while the first wave of COVID-19 is passing, we would be very grateful for continued support for PPE for our frontline healthcare workers.

You can explore additional COVID-19 fundraising activities across King’s Health Partners on our website.