John Lewis Partnership announces help for health workers on the frontline

THUSRDAY 9 APRIL 2020

Retailer creates wellbeing area for staff at NHS Nightingale London  and joins forces with the BMA to deliver 60,000 essentials to key NHS staff.

This week, the John Lewis Partnership is installing a wellbeing area for medical staff and volunteers at the Nightingale NHS Hospital, London, which it has designed. 

The space will be the only area within the main part of the hospital that is specifically designed for all staff to have a place of sanctuary, when they need help or time out to relax from their extremely challenging environment.

Composer, Alejandro Bonatto, has created a playlist to help staff unwind in one of the three different wellbeing zones.

Matthew Trainer, Deputy CEO, NHS Nightingale London said: “We are so grateful to the John Lewis Partnership for their continued commitment to taking care of NHS staff.

“The care packages, designed in collaboration with the BMA, will be a welcome gesture of support for busy staff on the go, and the wellbeing space will allow our staff much-needed time out during their shifts.

“This is a fantastic example of people and companies coming together to help NHS staff as they respond to the greatest public health challenge in over a century – but every member of the public can play their part too, in particular by staying home to slow the spread of the virus and save lives.”

Sharon White, Partner & Chairman, John Lewis Partnership, says: “The John Lewis Partnership salutes the courage and humanity of every NHS worker fighting this awful virus. We are exceptionally lucky to have an amazing health service open to all. As a small token, we’re donating food and essential items to the NHS; we’re making it easier for NHS workers to shop in Waitrose and we’re helping staff at the new Nightingale Hospital in London. We will do more over the coming weeks.”

Nationwide care packages to be delivered to frontline NHS workers with BMA

The John Lewis Partnership has also partnered with the British Medical Association (BMA) to distribute care packages for frontline NHS workers at the busiest hospitals across the UK*. 

From today, the retailer will start making 400 deliveries of essential items to help NHS staff feel refreshed and energised during long shifts. Nightingale London and the main London NHS Trusts will be the first to receive the care packages.

Based on advice from the BMA, these supplies will be a combination of 60,000 much-needed non-clinical essentials, including; toiletries, such as deodorant, shaving foam, hand cream, antibac hand gel and lip balm; as well as snack food, tea, coffee and socks. The boxes also contain a wellbeing leaflet with information about a 24/7 counselling service and guidance from the BMA on a range of issues.

Over the next few weeks, these boxes will be delivered to acute hospital trusts in the UK to safely distribute to high intensity clinical areas such as Critical Care and Intensive Care units. This will ensure healthcare staff working long hours and under terrible strain receive the products they need.

Dr Chaand Nagpaul, British Medical Association Chair of Council, says: “When so many healthcare staff are putting in hour after hour to look after so many very sick patients, a deed, such as this, to show how much they are appreciated, can make all the difference - supplying healthcare staff with essentials they may otherwise have difficulty getting hold of because of the hours they are working, -  doing long shifts - is truly welcome and we are very grateful.

“The BMA is delighted to be working with John Lewis and Waitrose to provide these care boxes to so many frontline staff over the coming weeks. Whilst we know that many staff are facing huge challenges, we hope these boxes will bring a few smiles and some comfort to as many staff as possible during these incredibly difficult times.”

The John Lewis Partnership is also accommodating on-call NHS key workers on its Leckford Estate in Hampshire. The Partnership Hotels team is hosting key medical staff who need to be near the hospital in lodges which are usually used as holiday homes for Partners.

Twelve lodges have been available to the Hampshire NHS Trust, which can accommodate 29 people - each with their own bedroom. The NHS staff are primarily key workers at The Royal County Hampshire Hospital in Winchester.

Waitrose and John Lewis have already introduced a number of other ways to support NHS workers:

• Waitrose shops are setting aside a proportion of hard-to-find and essential products from every delivery - exclusively for NHS staff, on production of an NHS card - who often do not have flexibility over what time of the day they can visit a supermarket.
• NHS staff are being given priority checkout service in the retailer's shops to ensure they are able to get through as quickly and easily as possible - through either dedicated NHS checkouts, Partners opening up new tills for them as needed or moving to the front of the queue.
• Gifting essential food items, hot meals and items such as pillows and phone chargers to local hospitals through our Partners in John Lewis and Waitrose.
• Waitrose and John Lewis are giving away 50,000 boxes of Easter confectionery to NHS workers in the run up to Easter. 

*UK, excluding Northern Ireland.

About the John Lewis Partnership

The John Lewis Partnership owns and operates two of Britain's best-loved retail brands - John Lewis & Partners and Waitrose & Partners. Started as a radical idea nearly a century ago, the Partnership is the largest employee-owned business in the UK and amongst the largest in the world, with over 80,000 employees who are all Partners in the business. For all intents and purposes, the Partnership is a social enterprise; the profits made are reinvested into the business - for customers and Partners. John Lewis & Partners operates 50 shops across the UK (36 department stores, 12 John Lewis at home and shops at St Pancras International and Heathrow Terminal 2) as well as johnlewis.com. Waitrose & Partners has 338 shops in England, Scotland, Wales and the Channel Islands, including 61 convenience branches, and another 27 shops at Welcome Break locations. Waitrose & Partners exports products to more than 50 countries worldwide and has nine shops which operate under licence in the Middle East. The retailer's omnichannel business includes the online grocery service, Waitrose.com, as well as specialist online shops including waitrosecellar.com for wine and waitroseflorist.com for plants and flowers.