Staff working in hospitals and community services across Walsall and Wolverhampton have been given a helping hand in the current heatwave, thanks to the efforts of their charities.
The Royal Wolverhampton NHS Trust Charity and Walsall Healthcare NHS Trust’s Well Wishers charity have been able to offer staff fruit, drinks and ice creams over the last few days.
At Walsall Manor Hospital, staff are being offered a free ice lolly thanks to support from the Trust’s catering department throughout the heatwave.
The charity was also supported by Skanska, Darbar Sri Guru Granth Sahib Ji, Morrisons and Asda in providing free water, drinks, fruit, snacks, tissues, and wipes over the weekend.
On Sunday, a group of volunteers from the Sikh temple in Rollingmill Street kindly set up outside Walsall’s Emergency Department to give staff, West Midlands Police and West Midlands Ambulance Service samosas, drinks, and fruit.
Colleagues at Walsall community sites were able to get free refreshments from Walsall Palliative Care Centre and Hollybank House over the weekend and, through their line managers, funds have been made available to keep them refreshed throughout the heatwave.
Georgie Westley, Fundraising Manager, said: “The charity is absolutely delighted to support staff to keep cool by providing them with refreshments during the heatwave.
“As well as the Fundraising Team visiting areas on Sunday, staff have been sent information of where they can get free water and snacks. We also have an air-conditioned rest room – Manor Lounge, where staff get refreshments free of charge and for the whole of this week is stocking tip tops and extra water.”
At The Royal Wolverhampton NHS Trust, (RWT), staff were treated to a free ice-cream at Cannock Chase, New Cross and West Park hospitals thanks to charity funding and the charity team secured bottles of water from Tesco in Willenhall and Morrisons in Cannock.
Amanda Winwood, RWT Charity Development Manager, said: “The charity was pleased to organise ice-cream trucks over the past week to keep our staff cool during the heatwave, making it a little easier to work in such temperatures.
“We would like to thank our local corporate supporters and supermarkets in offering bottles of water to help keep staff hydrated.”