Chief Executive's Column - October 2020

New garden furniture for outdoor areas, hot water boilers in staff rooms and iPads to help patients keep in touch with loved ones.

These are just a few of the items making a real difference to our patients and staff thanks to your generosity, all bought using donations received by our Lincolnshire NHS Charity during the Covid-19 pandemic.

Lincolnshire Community Health Services NHS Trust (LCHS), like many other NHS organisations, has received an incredible amount of support during 2020, in particular to our independent charity which jointly supports LCHS and Lincolnshire Partnership Foundation NHS Trust (LPFT).

One of the questions I am often asked is about the donations received during the Covid-19 pandemic and how we are making use of them.

This includes the amazing contributions we continue to receive as a member of NHS Charities Together, which has been raising a phenomenal amount of money nationally through initiatives such as Captain Tom Moore’s garden walk.

To date, for LCHS alone, this NHS Charities Together donation amounts to £56,750.

As holders of a public purse, how we spend charitable funds is carefully considered and can only support projects to enhance services and facilities that would not otherwise be funded by the NHS.

Donations made to specific funds or for specific purposes must also only be allocated for that use. 

Over the last couple of months, we have been asking our staff for their suggestions and ideas of where this money would be best spend and where it will make the most impact for patients and staff.

Early purchases have seen outdoor areas improved with benches and garden furniture, which patients can enjoy with their relatives and our staff can relax on during a well-earned break.

Several of our staff rooms have been revamped to create a comfortable place to rest, while more hydration stations, including cold water taps and hot water boilers, are now available for when anyone needs a quick drink.

Keeping in touch with friends and family has never been more important so we have also invested in some new iPads for patients to use when staying with us to make video calls easier to facilitate.

Our work to explore further suggestions is ongoing but there will be some very exciting things to come.

So, on behalf of everyone at LCHS, I would once again like to say thank you for every single donation, kind word and gesture of support given to us so far in 2020. It really has made a huge difference to us all personally and professionally as we continue to face the challenges ahead.  

For more information about our Lincolnshire NHS Charity, please visit https://lincolnshirecommunityhealthservices.nhs.uk/join-us/charitable-funds or follow @LCHSandLPFTCharitableFunds on Facebook and @charitablefunds on Twitter.