Posted: 18 February 2021

Buckinghamshire Healthcare NHS Trust welcomes Nuffield Health Support in COVID-19 pandemic efforts

Teams from Buckinghamshire Healthcare NHS Trust and Nuffield Health, the UK’s largest healthcare charity, are working together with 28 employees from Nuffield Health being seconded into family liaison, clerical, operational and administrative positions including COVID-19 swabbing to support the NHS Trust’s efforts during the COVID-19 pandemic.

The employees joined the NHS Trust team in January, seconded into Stoke Mandeville, Amersham and Wycombe hospitals. The employees chose to be seconded into the NHS Trust team after being furloughed due to Nuffield Health’s UK network of fitness and wellbeing centres and clinical services being closed due to current government restrictions.

Sam Moya, Wellbeing Personal Trainer at Nuffield Health’s Fitness and Wellbeing Centre in Aylesbury, explains: “I’m a marshal for the COVID-19 vaccinations at Stoke Mandeville Hospital. I take a register of each person who attends for their vaccination and hand them a consent form to complete prior to them entering the building where the vaccine is administered. I also help deliver food and refreshments to the NHS team working on the wards with COVID-19 patients, the NHS team are always extremely grateful.”

Tunde Adewopo, Divisional Director of Specialist Services at Buckinghamshire Healthcare NHS Trust says: “Partnering with Nuffield Health locally to be able to bring some of their employees to work with us at the Trust couldn’t be more timely. They will be able to contribute to the national effort to fight the pandemic by filling essential administrative, clerical and operational roles, or by acting as family liaisons. This will support our medical and nursing colleagues, helping to free up their time and enabling them to focus even more on caring for our patients, who are at the heart of everything we do.” 

Nuffield Health’s Charity and Medical Director, Dr Davina Deniszczyc, states: “As the UK’s largest healthcare charity, we’re proud our people are supporting Buckinghamshire Healthcare NHS Trust during the COVID-19 pandemic. 

“We are in a unique position within the healthcare sector to utilise our people’s broad range of expertise, across clinical, fitness and mental health to support NHS Trusts and our people are excited to be working alongside their NHS colleagues. This initiative builds on our hospitals continuing support to NHS trusts across the UK, so far over 230,000 NHS patients have been cared for by our hospital teams during the pandemic and our nurseries have cared for the children of NHS key workers. We have also launched a free, specialist COVID-19 rehabilitation programme with NHS trusts to support patients in their recovery,” she says.