‘Inspiring’ year of helping out
East Berkshire: GMB and UNISON celebrate after subsidiary plan for Frimley NHS trust is dropped
Next week marks a year since the country entered into its first COVID-19 lockdown. As we approach 12 months since the pandemic began to take hold of our freedoms, reporter Kieran Bell spoke to some of the volunteers who have formed an army of people helping others out during the crisis.
It has been nearly a year since our lives changed dramatically.
Tuesday will mark the anniversary of the day Boris Johnson told the nation to ‘stay at home’ as coronavirus spread rapidly across the country.
Throughout March 2020, countries around the world closed schools, shops and pubs as infections climbed, and it was not long before the UK followed suit.
Fast forward 12 months, and many of the restrictions we have had to endure over the past year are back in force.
We were slowly given some freedoms over the summer, before an second wave of COVID-19 plunged the country back into lockdown again in November and January.
Amongst all the sadness as the pandemic approaches an unwanted milestone, there have been tales of kindness.
And this was the case for Maidenhead, whose community groups and charities stepped up to act as a beacon of light during what is, for so many people, a lonely time.
Cox Green SOS was set up in March 2020.
Formed by volunteers who wanted to assist the most vulnerable, the group matched them up with people who would run errands and ensure they had enough supplies – as well as someone to talk to.
“We helped a lady who was shielding, and she needed certain food that she couldn’t get because of her health condition,” volunteer at Cox Green SOS, Sally Haseler, said.
“We supplied her for about three to four months with fresh food.”
Tasks such as dog
walking, prescription pickups, befriending and shopping trips have been carried out by Cox Green SOS, which also works with Maidenhead Foodshare to identify people most in need.
Sally described her experiences over the past year as ‘inspiring’.
“We are not doing it for thanks. We are doing it because there are people out there that need our help,” she added.
“I do not think that anybody could have predicted that we would be in this situation. It has been inspiring in many ways seeing how many people there are that wanted to help.”
About 150 volunteers are now helping out, and Sally wants to make Cox Green SOS permanent.
“It is a long-term aim, not just for the pandemic, for people to know that we are here if they need us,” she said.
Over in Holmanleaze, Maidenhead Mosque has taken on similar responsibilities.
It, too, wants to ensure that the work it has done during the crisis is carried on in the future.
“We are going as long as we possibly can,” said Zia Mahiudin, trustee at the mosque.
One of the main jobs Zia
and his team have been doing is providing essential food parcels for vulnerable people and those shielding.
The project grew as more volunteers and donations arrived, and the mosque now has its sights set on working with the council to provide oxygen tanks in people’s homes, if they suffer with their breathing.
It also wants to help families with technology, and their bills.
“It has been a really difficult year, but we stepped up and supported the community in a really incredible way that can never be forgotten,” Zia said. “We would never have imagined such a scenario.”
As very small steps are taken out of this latest lockdown, the vaccine rollout is providing hope.
More than 24.5million people have now received their first dose of a vaccine across the country, with 1,663,646 having had their second jab.
After months of daily figures telling us how many people we have lost to COVID, these new statistics paint a more positive picture – a route out of the crisis.
And even as people roll up their sleeves to get the jab, arms, volunteers like Sally and Zia will not be putting down their food parcels quite yet.
Unions are celebrating after ‘privatisation’ plans for nonclinical staff at Wexham Park and Heatherwood hospitals have been scrapped.
Frimley NHS Foundation Trust has confirmed that it will no longer be pursuing the creation of a wholly-owned subsidiary (WOS) company to run some of its non-clinical support services.
The plans were first revealed in 2019 and would have seen more than 1,000 staff roles including housekeeping, security and portering transferred to the new company.
These plans were met with a series of strikes and demonstrations from unions including UNISON and GMB which raised fears that the switch would create a ‘two-tier
workforce’, with workers operating under separate terms and conditions to the NHS.
Reacting to the news that the plans has been scrapped, Asia Allison, GMB regional organiser said: “This is fantastic news. GMB members who simply refused to accept being privatised have finally seen the threat of being transferred out of the NHS to a wholly owned subsidiary stopped.
“It would appear that in doing so the trust has finally accepted that recent events during the COVID crisis have shown the real value of these staff rather than their value as commodities, and that appears to be the justification to cancel any WOS.”
UNISON South East regional organiser PatrickKenny said: “The trust’s decision to scrap its unpopular and controversial wholly owned subsidiary plans is a massive victory for NHS workers.
“Over a thousand hardworking staff at Wexham Park, Heatherwood and Frimley
Park hospitals should never have been put at risk of being taken out of the NHS.
“These staff are passionate about the health service and ran a magnificent campaign against privatisation of the NHS by the backdoor.
“The pandemic has demonstrated more than ever the importance of a unified NHS with
everyone working together.
“Staff will be relieved the subsidiary nightmare is behind them. They can now focus once again on providing outstanding care for patients.”
A spokesman from Frimley Health NHS Foundation Trust
said: “We have confirmed to staff that we will not be pursuing the creation of a wholly-owned subsidiary and we will continue to work with them to deliver our strategy and to secure the benefits in different ways.”