Islamic Relief UK donates £30,000 to CW+, to help COVID-19 patients in Chelsea and Westminster Hospital’s intensive care unit

As demands for medical equipment increase during the coronavirus pandemic, Islamic Relief UK is working with CW+, the official charity of the Chelsea and Westminster Hospital NHS Foundation Trust (CWFT), to help support its newly-expanded intensive care facilities, with the financing of new equipment.

Funds donated to the charity’s COVID-19 Rapid Response Fund will support Chelsea and Westminster Hospital with ten syringe pumps which will deliver precise amounts of fluid and medicines to patients in the hospital’s newly expanded intensive care unit.

Via CW+, Islamic Relief UK will also fund seven portable workstations, to allow intensive care teams access to integrated care systems at patients’ bedsides and the flexibility to move between static and newly-converted intensive care areas.

CW+ CEO Chris Chaney said:

We are very grateful to Islamic Relief UK for helping to provide this important equipment during these immensely challenging times. Donations to the COVID-19 Rapid Response Fund, which we launched in mid-March, have been invaluable in urgently improving our services to staff and in patients, and in this case, urgently our intensive care capacity in both our hospitals.

As the official charity of CWFT and the hospitals it runs, namely Chelsea and Westminster Hospital and West Middlesex University Hospital, CW+ launched its COVID-19 Rapid Response Fund on March 19, a few days before the national lockdown. Donations from the fund have financed equipment, services and items for the wellbeing of both staff and patients, in addition to new technology to enable and improve communications between clinicians, patients and their families.

Tufail Hussain, Director of Islamic Relief UK said:

Doctors, nurses and other healthcare workers are on the frontline, risking their lives to help save others, and we are overwhelmed and humbled by their incredible work. This is truly the best of humanity in compassion and helping those suffering. We wanted to do what we could to help during this very challenging time, and pray that this contribution will help make a difference and make it easier for those affected and working at Chelsea and Westminster Hospital.

Covid-19 has sadly claimed the lives of 37,460 (1) people in the UK and has brought the way of life of millions of people to a standstill. Many communities are finding themselves in vulnerable situations financially, emotionally and without access to essential support.

Islamic Relief UK launched an emergency appeal last month to support the country’s most vulnerable people during the coronavirus outbreak through local charity partners. It committed to making £500,000 available to support these organisations.

(1) Figures as of 28th May 2020

ENDS

For more information and interviews, please contact Jonaid Jilani: [email protected]; 07872 403534;

Notes to Editors:

· Islamic Relief is a faith-inspired, development, and humanitarian agency working to transform and save the lives of some of the most vulnerable people in over 40 countries. Islamic Relief assists people according to need and does not discriminate in any way.

· Set up in Birmingham in 1984 by a group of volunteers, we have assisted over 117 million people all over the world. We’re saving lives and empowering people to lift themselves out of poverty in over 40 countries – from Bangladesh to Bosnia, Pakistan to Palestine, Kenya to Kosovo. Islamic Relief is on the ground in some of the world’s most dangerous and difficult places – including Syria and Yemen – strengthening the most marginalised communities to withstand conflict and natural disasters and to build a brighter future. We also support vulnerable people in the UK in partnership with local charities and organisations.