Three years on from lockdown – how you’ve helped your hospitals

Three years ago today, the country went into a full lockdown in a bid to tackle the spread of Covid-19, keep our communities safe, and help our struggling NHS.

It was a difficult and worrying time for many people, unable to go out and mix with family and friends, and uncertain what the future might hold.

Despite all this, our local community came together in a truly unprecedented way.

Local individuals, families, businesses and other organisations threw their support behind our ‘Help your Hospitals’ appeal, which we launched as the first lockdown began, to support the NHS staff at Nottingham’s hospitals who were working so hard under extremely challenging circumstances.

Thanks to your support, we raised hundreds of thousands of pounds to initially provide food packages and other essential items for staff, followed by the creation of wellbeing centres where NHS workers could get respite from working long hours during challenging shifts, and sleep pods for them to get some much-needed rest.

Over the following months, money raised through the appeal enabled us to create and improve outdoor as well as indoor rest areas for the NHS staff at Nottingham’s hospitals, as well as funding a psychological support programme for those whose emotional and mental wellbeing had been affected by their work during the pandemic.

The past three years have been a truly remarkable period in our nation’s history, but we’d like to take this opportunity to mark not only all that was lost during the pandemic, but all the good that came from the people of Nottingham and beyond pulling together to care for each other and show their support for the truly amazing staff at our NHS hospitals.

Thank you to everyone who continues to support our NHS, and thank you to all the staff who cared for us during this incredibly difficult time.