Many roads in Lewisham stood silent at 10am on 21 April. The 2-minute silence was intended to honour the memory of two nurses and one doctor from Lewisham Hospital who have now passed away due to Covid-19.
tweeted about the new Justgiving page.
Dr Eric Labeja-Acellam was a retired consultant doctor who worked at Lewisham Hospital. Grace Kungwengwe was a nurse working at Lewisham Hospital, as was Esther Akinsaya.
A Justgiving page has been set up to raise funds to support the families of Lewisham and Greenwich NHS Trust staff who have passed away due to the Covid-19 pandemic. Please consider donating here.
We have also heard that three nurses are currently in critical care at the hospital. Our thoughts are with them and their families, and we hope that they recover fully.
Messages from local health staff
Although this is a challenging time for the Trust and its staff, a local nurse has told us about the gratitude with which NHS staff react to the public’s support: ‘We are feeling the love and support of our local community with regular donations of food essentials and meals for staff from local faith groups and businesses turning up just when you need it. We are so grateful for this, it has really helped us to cope.’
As well as the above initiative to fundraise for the affected families, there have been examples locally of goodwill and co-operation, with small-scale manufacturers turning their attention to producing protective equipment and local volunteers stepping up to support the elderly and vulnerable as well as NHS staff.
The Help Lewisham Hospital initiative has been acting as a central repository of essential food for NHS workers since the start of this crisis. They continue to fundraise and to support Lewisham Hospital staff in safely accessing essential food. They explain: ‘The first priority for our GoFundMe is to ensure that NHS Lewisham staff can access their essentials when they finish their shifts.’
There are makers all over the world producing PPE as fast as they can to donate to their local health services. They are 3D printing face shield mounts, mask comfort straps and even complete masks.
Locally, one TV set construction company are using their facilities to make face shields. Another is 3D printing complete reusable masks as well as importing disposable masks, reusable masks and thousands of face shields. They have already delivered 500 KN95 masks to frontline health workers yesterday. We will post more details as we have them or if you would like to find out more or get involved you can contact Jem via email here or on 07786118878 .
Special mention for rainbows
It can be the small things that make the difference, and a local nurse has also pointed out to us that there have been ‘so many lovely messages and pictures of rainbows, now laminated and decorating our hallways. It’s beautiful and uplifting.’ Young local artists can rest assured that any artwork being displayed in their windows has been noticed and appreciated by NHS staff.
Stay at home but the NHS is here for you
As we approach a month in lockdown, a local nurse urged us to pass on the message that the NHS ‘are still here for you regardless of the pandemic… attend A&E when you’re unwell, call for advice if worried about this, as we are concerned about the numbers of regular patients that are not coming in but we know heart attacks, strokes, appendicitis etc are still happening. Thank you for protecting our NHS but please don’t do so at the expense of your or your children’s health.’