The Healthcare Workers’ Foundation (HWF), a charity founded by NHS workers for NHS workers, has launched Healthchain – a brand new bespoke digital platform and one-stop-shop to give NHS and frontline staff access to essential goods and services.
Healthchain will act as a hub for NHS staff to gain access to much needed essentials. The digital platform (which is being developed into a mobile app) will not only be available to medical practitioners, but all healthcare staff, from porters to cleaners to care home workers and community staff.
The new platform will provide staff with free or discounted goods and services from HWF including financial assistance, childcare grants, PPE, and counselling and therapy sessions. In future, the charity plans to expand the platform to offer third-party services, ranging from transport, financial services to food and clothing lines, which will provide NHS staff with exclusive offers.
Dr Jeeves Wijesuriya, a spokesperson at the Healthcare Workers’ Foundation said: “The pressure placed on NHS workers over the past 11 months has been unimaginable. From fatigue, anxiety, burn-out, set against a backdrop of struggling to meet unprecedented demand for patients, the launch of something like Healthchain is long overdue.
“We want to take the pressure off NHS workers and provide a single, easy-to-access hub where they can get hold of essential support and resources which will help them, so they can continue to help you. Healthchain will do just that, and as we continue to develop the service, we only hope to see more health workers benefit from the platform.”
The HWF is already working with third-party organisations including Harley Therapy, Medics Money, Doctors in Distress and Ally to provide staff with access to much needed goods, PPE and services, and the charity hopes to build on current partnerships by working with organisations that are committed to supporting healthcare workers.
To-date, HWF has raised over £1.2 million to help support NHS and frontline staff. Through its partners at Harley Therapy has delivered over £30,000 worth of free counselling sessions, in addition to providing NHS workers with more than £170,000 in childcare grants, alongside the provision of much-needed sustainable PPE and hospital scrubs.
