People need to stop knitting and donating chocolate etc our hospital!

[AuntyClockWise]

I was drafted in to help nursing staff today sort through 300 (yes, really) Easter eggs that have been donated over the past few weeks and sort these for food banks and care homes and childcare hubs. Took half a day plus lots of storage space.

A lady turned up at the hospital with 30 home made/sewn face masks. She was very angry when the main desk had to turn her away and decline the items as apparently she'd spent ages on them and had travelled a long way to get them to the hospital. Again, more time spent dealing with this person and not to mention the fact she had travelled unnecessarily.

Where has this idea come from for people to donate so much stuff to hospitals? Don't people realise that PPE has to meet a certain level of safety standard so we need to get from reliable and tested companies? Do people think that we have the space and time to deal with all the food and drinks donated?

Our hospital has put out a facebook post today to reiterate we can't accept donations like these and there are now hundreds of angry responses calling us ungrateful and that they're annoyed this wasn't said sooner as they've spent weeks knitting and sewing various things for the nurses and doctors to use on the wards.

I'm sure people are trying to be nice but why isn't common sense prevailing? Why not donate time and energy to a place which has the resources and ability to accept such donations?

Of course, I'm only able to speak for common feelings shared today in my place of work. Some other people here might say they are loving the donations.

Just wanted to suggest on here that if you are considering donating something to your local hospital, I'd suggest phoning the main desk first or sending them an email as the likelihood is that they can't accept it.

This is that thing about these gifts being about the giver rather than the receiver. At a massive scale. People like and want to act, to do something, make gestures. In the face of an NHS run into the ground after years of underfunding, at the point of crisis, of course being given useless things is a bit heartbreaking and despair inducing.

We are accepting graciously and passing them to those that can use them but are maybe not getting as much publicity as the NHS.
I enjoyed my egg and was very grateful!

I think you have to keep in mind that all the general public are hearing about PPE is how short we all are and they simply want to help. I know where you're coming from but it is being done with the best of intentions. My hospital has also stopped accepting donations of PPE due to the time required to check the standard of the donations. However, they are explaining the reasons and instead redirecting people wishing to donate to local care homes, social care organisations and GP surgeries who are able to make use of them. I'm not aware of any negative backlash as a result of this, and there are a lot happy local non hospital care workers that now have PPE that they otherwise wouldn't have access to!

I organise scub makers for hospitals in my county - they key thing is not to make blindly without having been asked properly, and then confirming with source. HOWEVER the hospitals also don't want to have 100s of people phoning - find people well organised with named contacts within the units if not within the purchasing supply units. We lucked out in someways and contacts were within existing circles of people, those we have organising the workbeing done have manufacturing backgrounds and we are well structured and organised. We have central points of contacts and we only accept makes WE KNOW there is demand for. We are well funded and have around 500 volunteer sewers that sew to a standard that is high enough for the NHS, we also have an alternative route for less regulation scrubs and supply care homes and other health providers including hot hubs, gp surgeries and so on. So if you ar going to make make sure you are making approved items, not just requested items - so for e.g. ICU and HDU cannot take crochet button bands but actually fabric headbands with buttons are approved as they can be washed at 60 and decontaminated. Aso be aware what is aceptable and not is variable by hospital, as is the need.

There are lists out there if you care to look as to what different hospitals need and can accept. But its like charity shops are meant to be greatful for everything that walks though the door even if the only place for something is the bin.

Perhaps hospitals could be more specific about exactly what is and isn’t useful.
Or those of us that aren’t NHS Heroes could sit at home, believe the government that everything is under control and you are all just profligate with resources and disorganised about shopping.
Would that be better than trying to support in pointless ways that get ridiculed?

I thought that when I saw homemade masks- are they not supposed to be of a certain material and meet certain standards. Our local hospital is asking for cans of drink, bottles of water, pot noodles and deodorant. Makes sense to me.

pinknsparkly that sounds a better way of channelling misplaced goodwill. Even though it takes effort.

I’ve seen several people on Instagram this weekend posting on small business pages along the lines of ‘these would be really useful for me and my colleagues working in the nhs’ basically trying to get freebies. Lots of small businesses are massively struggling, people can’t pay their bills and government help is still weeks away, and while I appreciate the nhs is under pressure etc it really peed me off to see people who are on full pay trying to get freebies out of people that are struggling to feed their kids :-(

Why do people think that nursing and care homes need less protection than hospitals?
Surgical masks need to be a certain standard for everyone.
I work at a hospice and someone made some cloth masks- I will not endanger my staff by using them and I would not endanger anyone in any care sector by passing them on!

Op I get you, I've been working double my usual hours just to sort PPE. Constantly monitoring stock and looking for ongoing reliable suppliers who aren't asking for a 1000% mark up on price.
I send hours going through the 'donations' - it breaks my heart that someone wasted their time and or money buying unusable stuff.

We've had kids sending in their swimming goggles!

The chocolate was easier to deal with as it went into the staff canteen.

What isn't easy is people want pictures of their donations in use- no one has time for that!

Time is money

I've seen loads of things on facebook where Nurses appear to be asking for things. There was a post today asking for people to sew scrubs for our local hospital's ITU staff. Also community nurses asking for lunch to be delivered because their usual lunchtime places weren't open etc.

This //\

People are seeing posts / media pleas for items and are therefore trying to help. You may not want those particular items, but the idea that hospitals want things is primarily coming from the hospitals themselves

You're not at all being unreasonable. I'm in several very large sewing groups and people are being very aggressive towards trusts who've made it very clear from the beginning they can't accept things from the public. The problem is people won't listen and have been harassing hospital staff and admin of these craft groups over it. I understand that they feel the need to do something and when they see an individual nurse or carer go begging online for something these donors go all out assuming they're wanted everywhere and then they're offended when they find out that's not the case at all.

So, we should just step back, focus on our own families, stop the ridiculous making, gifting, clapping that achieves nothing and let the professionals get on with it, without us interfering.
Got it.

Why do people think that nursing and care homes need less protection than hospitals?
Surgical masks need to be a certain standard for everyone.I work at a hospice and someone made some cloth masks- I will not endanger my staff by using them and I would not endanger anyone in any care sector by passing them on!

Because a lot of care homes have nothing, the NHS is being prioritised for PPE bought by the government, and locally they literally have zero masks. The double filtered cloth masks are probably better than nothing. Surely staff could take one home and use it for shopping etc?

Also agree about the freebies, lots of insta bad tik tok users saying they would love this and that for their hard work.

Nurses asking for things on social media will probably end up being disciplined as they are creating more issues than solving.

We don't want scrubs because our clinical teams have uniforms but we are being made gowns as these are hard to get.

We've been made lots of visors and the quality and comfort vary massively.

I totally understand why you don't want those donations.

But I've also seen my local hospital wards/staff and the local Covid-19 Mutual Aid group specifically asking for donations for the hospital staff - from handcreams to snacks and knitted hearts etc. It's easy to see why people would think donations are needed as there are so many posts asking for stuff.

My daughter was more than happy with the Easter eggs lol , also a lady made a little bag for their uniforms . For staff in the community who were given no PPE at all at first ,were grateful for donated stuff at first .

Looks like different hospitals/trusts are reacting differently towards donations. Ours, like many others I'm sure, have taken the stance not to accept donations. We never asked for them to begin with and maybe that was the mistake? Someone has maybe seen a plea for donations from another region and generalised this to the entire NHS.

I think it would be worthwhile to somehow contact the hospital and ask if they are needing something as you're keen to donate in some way. They'll likely let you know if they need something or signpost you to the council or other sector to donate to the childcare hubs or food banks or some local charity. The reception staff at my hospital would much rather deal with general enquiries like that than have to turn away any more people who turn up with handmade items we can't accept or food we can't store.

Ours is a small hospital and the Easter eggs completely took over three staff rooms on different wards making it difficult to get into fridges, microwaves etc for staff to get their lunches and breaks.

Not at all meaning to sound ungrateful but i think not wanting to offend people has led to us spending a lot of time and resources sorting out items not needed/wanted.

Plus, the people donating are going against the one thing that WILL help the NHS - staying home and avoiding unnecessary travel.

Thisisit- these homes still have a duty of care to their staff and using dodgy homemade masks is dangerous and will result in.

If they give their staff crap masks and that member of staff contracts covid there will be sever repercussions for all concerned.

Please don't try to tell me about the supply chain of PPE as I am an expert in This area right now.

Hospitals in Wales absolutely are accepting PPE donated by individuals. Not at all an ideal situation, but neither is what they have at the moment.

I can understand the poor woman who'd made the face masks feeling upset at being given short shrift, tbh. She was hardly unreasonable when these things have actually been asked for on social media.

So, we should just step back, focus on our own families, stop the ridiculous making, gifting, clapping that achieves nothing and let the professionals get on with it, without us interfering.
Got it.

Sounds like a good idea to me!! They’re doing their job - yes it’s a very important one, but the general public fetishising it and hero worshipping them is just odd to me. There are plenty of people working shitty jobs for not a lot of money, or with no job at all at the moment. Let’s all take care of our families and let the professionals get on with caring for those in hospital.

*I can understand the poor woman who'd made the face masks feeling upset at being given short shrift, tbh. She was hardly unreasonable when these things have actually been asked for on social media."

The one thing my hospital has been plastering all over social media is to stay home and avoid unnecessary travel. Why wouldn't she listen to that rather than generalise to us something she has seen posted by a different trust?

Sorry OP I didn't mean to give such savage replies, logistically I can see why it's frustrating and unwanted. But from an 'outsider' perspective when the media is saying that hospitals have no PPE, nurses on social media are filming themselves crying because the shops had run out of food by the time they were off shift, it's not hard to see why people want to donate food and homemade PPE; and no, a lot of people won't fully understand that it needs to fit certain criteria, as ridiculous as that sounds to a HCP.

This was the message posted on social media at the end of March from our local hospital:

We’ve had so many kind offers of help to our staff.

The best way to show your support is through the hospital charity, which is raising money for our heroes 🦸‍♀️

Please don’t enter the hospital with your donations or gifts for your safety & the safety of our patients & staff.

Thank you 🙏

They are only accepting donations either from local businesses, or of certain items, which is coordinated locally and then someone who is headed into work anyway takes them. It seems that on your local group the 'you could have said sooner' is fair enough. Hopefully someone on social media will continue to push that message and it will be easier for everyone.

Our hospital was donated a whole lot of easter eggs. Nice little morale boost. Though even better are the local companies making face visors!

The media have blown it out of proportion.
One of my friends who is a junior doctor got turned away from one hospital she applied for due to overstaffing.

The nurse I live with has comeback home early everyday because if you're not a covid patient, you're not admitted into hospital, so her life is much more relaxed not having to look after inpatients post surgery.

Of course some hospitals are struggling and nurses are working overtime (if you're in ICU department) . But every single hospital isn't bursting at the seams like the media portray.