As some of you know, I am the chair of the Healthcare Workers' Foundation (prev HEROES), founded during the 1st wave, and working hard in the 2nd. Here's a little about what we've done, & what we will need your help to do. /thread
Follow us here: @thehwf

http://Healthcareworkersfoundation.org  https://twitter.com/theHWF/status/1323320319961161730

Since our founding, the charity has raised nearly £1.2m, which in turn we used to deliver-

- at peak, 2000 hot meals/d to NHS workers
- 500,000 items scrubs, PPE, lotions
- 100s hours of counselling
- £10,000s in childcare grants
- £50,000 in hardship funds to doctors & nurses.

Overall >550,000 units of support to NHS workers from Edinburgh to Brighton.

Some of our specific projects:

We built and produced, 100,000 CE-marked re-useable and sustainable visors with @makerversity and @ShieldCollab . Here's me wearing the prototype in ICU in Spring:

We even partnered with @parleyforoceans to produce 50,000 visors using donated reclaimed ocean plastic from the Dominican Republic. We delivered 25,000 back to healthcare workers to help fight COVID in the DR just this week, and 25,000 will go to UK workers over this winter:

We produced >14,000 pairs of scrubs with our partners Sew Sussex ...

...and delivered ~30,000 of these re-useable, super-comfortable and filtering face masks with our fantastic partner @Choose_Ally to NHS workers. 100% of the profits go back to us, to help fund our other projects: (so buy yours here http://chooseally.com )

NHS workers can access free counselling through our partners http://harleytherapy.com  , and we have funded hundreds of hours of the summer and will continue to do so over the winter.

We will also be funding 'Safe Spaces' to support mental health with Doctors in Distress.

And they will really need our support. Projections for winter are grim, with services stretched well past usual and likely even emergency capacity in UK.

This is ALREADY on the back of the huge backlogs to deal with as well, with over 100,000 waiting over a year for an op now.

Staff are really feeling it. 50% of pre-consultant doctors feel unsafe for themselves or colleagues [GMC training survey], up to a 1/3 of staff are considering leaving after the pandemic. [ @IPPR].

This is disaster. As one worker put it "like a bomb going off in a hurricane".

Sadly, this country has already lost over 640 healthcare workers, the second highest per million in the WORLD. @theHWF is working on supporting the families of the bereaved, with practical support, counselling and more.

The winter will be hard for all of us, we can all help by staying home, washing hands, making space & covering our face.

If you can help a little more for those who are helping us, you can donate to @thehwf here: https://healthcareworkersfoundation.org/ 

So be kind, stay informed, stay safe /end

You can still donate here if you are having issues with the healthcareworkersfoundation link: https://www.helpthemhelpus.co.uk/donate