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.

Similarly, i didn't make the decision to accept the eggs in the first place so can't account for why these were accepted.

So someone, or several someones if it was multiple donations, thought accepting the eggs was ok. Surely the same people could also give the green light to other donations, if people rang up or sent email / social media enquiries. I understand you don't want the donations at your hospital, but it's clear that others there don't share this view.

Actually the reason schools have been asked for there face shilds and googles is they have to use ones that do pass the specific standards for safety. Probably more then is needed by the NHS as for chemistry we need them to be chemical resistant and physics ones have to be impact resistant to a certain degree as well. Which you don't need for biology, so we just get one's that cover all three. And as we do microbiology in school that includes handling bugs as well.

I’ve seen some people suggest donations should be accepted and then passed on or taken home. Nothing that has been in a hospital comes into my home without being wiped down or otherwise decontaminated immediately and that includes me. I would not want to receive anything that had been handled by nurses at work in a hospital and then passed on. I wouldn’t take home an Easter egg although I enjoyed the one I ate at work. The risk may be small but I know I’m not the only one who has a careful routine aimed at reducing the risk of carrying covid home with me so why would do that then think it fine to send items that had been in the hospital off to the food bank or to other places that they might have been more helpfully given to in the first place?

As a tax payer, were you happy today that you were funding 3 nursing staff and a HCP to spend 4 hours sorting out chocolate when there were buzzers going off on wards because patients needed attended to and the hospital is already short staffed? This was seen as a priority job for us as staff were unable to take their breaks/make their lunches and someone had questioned fire hazards due to space and infection control issues.

As a tax payer, it pains me to read about such inefficiency In dealing with chocolate - as another poster said it would have been quicker to eat the damn stuff

@Tonz

The police would want them. Ppe could be handed out to members of the public eg people who have been arrested.
Chocolate etc officers would be grateful to have or take home to their children or give to vulnerable people.
Nothing needs to be wasted. If hospitals cant take it they cant take it.

We get Easter eggs donated yearly being in paediatrics but we had to get donations through an official trust channel this year. It's such a lovely thing that people want to donate and feel helpful . But the trust had to get a lid on it as was the sheer volume of donations. it was causing people to make journeys that weren't needed and needed to be fair with donations to all within the hospital Some things are well appreciated and accepted but others could be out to better use at food banks or in the community etc.

As for the freebies/vouchers/money off or free takeaways to wards. No one asked for them the businesses started it. NHS staff mostly would rather people abide by lockdown as much as possible to be fair. Only thing I've used is earlier shopping on a Sunday!

3 nurses and a care assistant took 4 hours to sort out 300 Easter eggs? In a hospital short of staff, with patients needing attention?

Four hours??? Seriously?

Shockingly inefficient use of time and nursing staff.

It's yet another of those "damned if you do"/ "damned if you don't" scenarios.
People are just acting with the best of intentions.
There is so much snapping and sniping going on right now, but on the whole people are just trying their best to do some good in a nightmare situation.

Agree with others that there is some shockingly inefficient management of staff if
a) you are using nurses to sort chocolate egg donations
b) it took 4 people x 4 hours to sort a mere 300 eggs
c) 300 eggs were allowed to 'build up' in the first place rather than just saying "Hey everyone, help yourself" from when the first few were first delivered.

However
Just go to the scrubs for love Facebook page, they have hospitals listed who have confirmed what they need, what specifications and how much and it's being coordinated by local reps.

This ^ is BY FAR AND AWAY the most useful thing to come out of this thread.
There is tremendous work going on by volunteers up and down the Country. Rather than criticising people's desire to help, actually signposting to a way that desire to help can be channeled effectively in the first place, would have created a FAR more positive thread.

I totally understand the frustration. I work with a small homelessness charity, and we get lots of donations that we both don't want and can't store

Our local hospital sent out lots of SM posts last week, and has set up a prominent section on the website clarifying how people can help and what they DON'T want with suggestions on where those items (eg fabric masks/easter eggs) are needed (care homes/food banks etc) I'd say your comms team are a bit behind the game at your Trust - that's definitely a job for them!

Sorry, should have credited
@TorysSuckRevokeArticle50
with the most helpful post on this thread

Why were the eggs being sorted? I don't even understand how it can take half a day to sort out eggs. And I am really curious, what was the sorting need and classification?! What did you do to them after sorting them?
Why not just put them in a basket, as they came, for taking? You don't even need to involve any staff. Put a basket or something at the entrance telling people to leave the eggs there. And the staff who need it can take it.
Our local hospital and staff have been grateful for the kindness by the community.

Look people
Sorting donations takes time - more than you would think.
Reception staff do not like unnecessary confrontation and so find it hard to say no, also a lot of people dump and run.
In normal times I've had to deal with grannies old used commode being 'gifted' to our lovely clean reception!

Sifting through hundreds of emails and phone calls everyday from people wanting to donate is time consuming. They all want an answer yesterday.

People still have everyday work to get on with on site in hospitals etc. There are less people and admin on site to deal with this stuff.

People need to ignore the media hysteria and look for verifiable organisations that have been asked to make things by specific sites. For the love of scrubs being one but there are many others.

Sifting through hundreds of emails and phone calls everyday from people wanting to donate is time consuming. They all want an answer yesterday.

But OP is suggesting this is exactly what people should be doing. You can see why people are getting confused with so many mixed messages.

Reception staff do not like unnecessary confrontation and so find it hard to say no

It doesn't need to be confrontational, the setting needs to set and communicate clear boundaries, it makes it far easier to enforce; rather than people turning up out of goodwill and being told no, we don't want that. Just be honest with people, and staff will have to stick to it. If people dump and run then chuck it or donate it, food banks and charities have plenty of volunteers who would be happy to collect it.

www.facebook.com/groups/1500699350098765/?ref=share

And the list they have collated of which hospitals have stated they want donations

trello.com/b/O8zlgTnE/hospitals

I'm not sure why you bothered posting just to try and embarrass me?

I’m well aware of what drafted in means. And as for trying to embarrass you? You're managing it really well all by yourself.

I'm not a manager so wasn't the one who made the decision to prioritise this task today.
Similarly, i didn't make the decision to accept the eggs in the first place so can't account for why these were accepted.

Sounds like a management problem more than a people donating problem.

I do understand the issue of space/appropriateness of some donated items, but there are a lot of mixed messages out there.

YANBU. People are virtue signalling left right and centre, making it about them not the people they are supposedly helping. The woman with the face masks was totally unreasonable to get angry.

By the way, where is your hospital? I will gladly take 300 Easter eggs off your hands to do you a favour!

At the hospice all donations have been very gratefully received.

Pizza was probably most popular - with everything being shut, it is hard to get lunch. Not all of us are able to bring in lunch from home so the pizza delivery was fantastic.

Every Easter Egg has found a grateful home.

Scrubs are being made by our own craft group plus some nurses' mums, visors have been ordered from a 3D printing group we found on Twitter. We can't find gowns anywhere.

We did feel guilty about food donations for a bit but then a lot of the staff have partners/siblings/children who are now unemployed or facing unemployment - just because we are in a job doesn't mean that family income hasn't collapsed so all food is bagged up and taken by verey grateful staff.

The donations of flour were also big winners

Chuck it or dump it.
We have to pay business rates for waste collection you know.
It has to be stored and touched and moved to be dumped.
All this takes time and money.

The poster who explained it in terms of a single parent in a small house with a MIL bringing unwanted and impractical gifts, where dealing with that is a massive headache explained it best.

I'm out
people are deliberately missing the point. I'm emotionally fried from trying to hunt down the correct level of PPE and dealing with the entitlement of people demanding we accept and love and grovel our thanks for their useless and in some cases dangerous donations in real life to deal with this thread.

Op I get you 100% and send you a little you are not alone wave.

Tomorrow I will spend hrs sorting donations and answering emails, another couple trying to fit in my normal job and then squeeze in the hunt for reliable sources of PPE and keep senior management informed of current stock and usage so they can escalate to mps, media etc, all in the hrs
I'm supposed to work but actually doing closer to double that.

I totally get you OP.
Lots of well-meaning but misguided generosity that creates a headache for hospitals. Rather than buying Easter Eggs and knitting hearts, best to donate cash to a nurses' union eg RCN or Unison. I'm sure they would be very grateful and make sure it went to the people most in need.

There's obviously differences across the country. Our local schools are making visors (at the request of the hospital) plus donating science goggles etc. DS' school sent 300 pairs to a local hospital.

Plus local people are making the headbands with the button on and scrubs plus bags. And I know several NHS staff that have been delighted with their Easter egg!