We salute the heroic pilots and cabin crew helping in hospitals
13th November 2020
Submitted by Gemma Brown, Chelsea & Westminster Hospital NHS Foundation Trust - West Midlands University Hospital
COVID-19 has affected all industries in the UK. Captain Dave from British Airways decided to set up Project Wingman to support NHS staff during the crisis. This gave pilots and cabin crew a chance to volunteer in their local hospital and provide tea and empathy to our NHS staff directly impacted by the crisis.
The Project Wingman volunteers at WestMid have been amazing, we inducted over 50 super keen airline staff who have provided continuous support in our Wellness Centre; they have even gone the extra mile by becoming part of our 'purple army' (Trust volunteers) and have completed training in ward helping, patient feeding and dementia care. They have also hosted special themed days for staff such as ‘Tropical Day’ and baked fresh cakes for staff to enjoy.
The project has worked really well at WestMid and both airline crew and NHS staff have really benefited from the project. For the airline crew it gave them a chance to put their customer service skills to good use and for many of them it provided a welcomed distraction from the restructuring and redundancies they are facing.
For our staff they really valued being cared for by Project Wingman and the project also provided an alternative conversation topic; it was heart-warming to see our staff ask the airline crew how they were coping during the crisis instead of the conversation and focus solely being on the NHS and the COVID crisis.
Project Wingman have been volunteering at WestMid since the beginning of May and have been providing a seven day week service in our Wellness Centre and will continue to support us moving forward. They have fitted into our volunteering team well and both airline crew and our 'Purple Army' have worked extremely hard together to support the staff wellbeing response at WestMid.
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