NHS Charities Together yet to give out almost £100m raised by public
THE NHS charity funding body has been accused of sitting on nearly £100m out of the £129m emergency funds raised by the public to help the NHS get through the coronavirus crisis.
Four months on from the start of the pandemic, 80 per cent of the “urgent” funding, which includes the £33m raised by Captain Tom Moore and money donated through Clap for Carers appeal, has still not been given to NHS charities.
The organisation handling the money, NHS Charities Together, had a turnover of just £389,000 last year, causing fears it “can’t deal” with millions of pounds.
So far, £20m has been given to charities, with another £10m allocated but not yet handed out.
One NHS charity fundraiser said the public thinks the charity is “rolling in cash” after national appeals, which began at the start of the pandemic in March, but that is not the case.
The fundraiser, who works at one of the 20 NHS charities based in Yorkshire, said: “It’s now nearly four months later and we’re still not sure when the vast majority of the funding will be available.”
The fundraiser raised concerns that local people are donating to NHS Charities Together, not knowing that it does not go directly to their local NHS charity.
They added: “All the poor souls who have done walks and baked cakes think we’ve had the money but we haven’t.”
Two fundraisers said they had been asked about what had happened to the “Captain Tom money” and the “Clap for Carers money” by people who did not understand that they had received only a fraction of it so far.
A NHS Charities Together spokesman said: “We are in uncharted territory with this crisis and we don’t know how long it will go on for or what direction it will take.
“We want to make sure the funds donated to us are used as effectively as possible and are supporting staff, volunteers and patients to deal with the crisis and have the help they need to recover from it in the longer term.”