Grateful critical care staff at Walsall Manor Hospital have served up their own thank you to local food banks.

During the height of the Covid-19 pandemic staff in the hospital’s Intensive Care Unit (ICU) were overwhelmed at the kindness of local businesses, organisations and individuals who regularly donated food and snacks. This meant staff who were in full Personal Protective Equipment and struggling to get off the unit were able to grab something to eat and drink quickly.

When the number of cases began falling and fewer patients needed critical care the team pledged to give something back to the communities which had been such strong supporters of their efforts during the pandemic and set up their own food collection points on the unit and in the Purple Hub in the outpatients corridor, with the support of trust Fundraising Manager Georgie Westley.

Last month they invited Allan Boot, Walsall co-ordinator for the Black Country Food bank and Mike Batchelor, the Willenhall co-ordinator, to come and collect all the donations. And they have been thrilled to learn that they managed to collect enough items to provide just over 400 meals.

ICU Matron Angela Dixon said: “We are so grateful for all the donations that came our way at what was an extremely difficult and challenging time to be working in critical care.

“It’s no understatement to say that staff were, at times, on their knees because of the relentless demand created by this virus. To be able to quickly grab something to eat and drink was a real boost and we’d like to sincerely thank everyone for their kindness.

“Now that the demand isn’t so high we wanted to give back to our community by helping others and worked with Georgie to organise donations for our local food bank.

“To hear that we were able to provide more than 400 meals is absolutely  fantastic.”